Los Angeles—Joe Harris scored a team high 28 points as the short-handed Brooklyn Nets snapped the Philadelphia 76ers’ five-game NBA winning streak with a 122-109 victory on Thursday.
Caris LeVert scored 22 points and had 10 assists as the Nets revelled in the task of stopping the NBA’s hottest team despite missing their two best players Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
Durant sat out due to COVID-19 protocols and Irving missed the game due to personal reasons.
Nets coach Steve Nash said before the contest that Irving’s absence came as a surprise to him and he was remained unsure of the exact issue.
Nash did say that Durant, who had to quarantine after possible Covid-19 exposure, could return on Sunday.
In the meantime, Harris got the job done, finishing two points shy of his career high as the Nets posted their second straight double-digit win after dropping four of five.
LeVert, who started in place of Irving, made the most of his opportunity. He scored 18 points by halftime as the Nets shot 45.4 percent and scored 35 points off 20 Philadelphia turnovers.
Stars Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons had quiet nights for the 76ers. Embiid scored 20 points on seven-of-14 shooting while Simmons had just 11 points.
Shake Milton started in place of injured Seth Curry and led the Sixers with 24 points and seven assists.
Tobias Harris added 17 points and rookie Tyrese Maxey finished with 16 points.
Meanwhile, 76ers guard Seth Curry returned a positive test for Covid-19 on Thursday as his team’s NBA clash with the Brooklyn Nets got underway, US media reported.
ESPN, citing unnamed league sources, said the 76ers would remain overnight in New York and begin contact tracing on Friday morning, along with a new round of testing.
The team did not immediately confirm a positive test.
Curry, brother of Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry, sat out the 76ers’ loss to the Nets with a sore left ankle.
But he spent the first quarter of the game on the 76ers bench before departing the Barclays Center arena separately from the rest of the team.
However, Curry played Wednesday for the 76ers, scoring 28 points in a 141-136 victory over the Washington Wizards in Philadelphia. AFP
The 76ers are next scheduled to play on Saturday when they are slated to host the Denver Nuggets.
Earlier Thursday, the NBA and the players’ union announced that of 498 players tested for Covid-19 since December 30, four had returned confirmed positive tests.
Since opening the 2020-21 campaign on December 22, the league has enforced strict protocols which require not only those who test positive but also those who return inconclusive tests to quarantine, along with any players who are deemed through contact tracing to have been exposed to the virus.
A December 23 game between the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder was postponed after three Houston players returned coronavirus tests that were either positive or inconclusive.
With other players quarantined due to possible exposure or violation of league injunctions against attending indoor gatherings, the Rockets didn’t have the minimum eight players available for the contest.
