Philadelphia 76ers guard Tony Wroten (centre) goes up for a shot past Cleveland Cavaliers guard Joe Harris during the second half at Wells Fargo Center. The 76ers defeated the Cavaliers 95-92.
AFP/New York
Mike Conley scored 22 points and handed out seven assists Monday as Memphis handed the New York Knicks a 12th straight NBA defeat, 105-83.
The struggling Knicks, dealing with injuries to top scorers Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire, matched their club-record losing streak established in the 1984-85 season as their record fell to a league-worst 5-32.
Anthony missed a third straight game with a sore left knee, while Stoudemire missed his sixth straight with a knee injury.
About half an hour before tip-off, sixth-man J.R. Smith and Samuel Dalembert were pulled from the game.
Smith and injured swingman Iman Shumpert are reportedly being dealt to Cleveland in a three-team trade while the Knicks were reported to be waiving Dalembert to save $2mn on his contract.
Spain’s Marc Gasol and Tony Allen had 14 points apiece for Memphis, who put the game away with a 15-2 scoring run midway through the third quarter. The Grizzlies made a blistering 72.7% of their shots from the floor in the quarter.
With LeBron James and Kyrie Irving sidelined and guard Dion Waiters headed out in a three-team trade, the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers fell to lowly Philadelphia 95-92 on Monday.
Tony Wroten’s go-ahead layup with 9.9 seconds to play gave the 76ers their first home victory of the season.
But it was the Cavaliers who were in the spotlight thanks to the trade that sent Waiters to the Oklahoma City Thunder in a deal that also involved the New York Knicks.
The Cavaliers acquired guards Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith from the Knicks and a 2015 first-round draft pick from the Thunder.
In exchange, Cleveland send Waiters to the Thunder and little-used reserves Lou Amundson and Alex Kirk and their own 2019 second-round draft pick to the Knicks.
New York will also receive forward Lance Thomas from Oklahoma City.
The Cavaliers are hoping to bolster their bench with the deal in adding Smith, a former sixth-man of the year, and boost their defense with Shumpert.
Cleveland have endured a rocky campaign since four-time NBA Most Valuable Player James opted to return to his home state and the club where he started his NBA career after four years in Miami.
Injuries have played a role.
James missed Monday’s game as he continues to recover from back and knee trouble while Irving sat out with tightness in his back.
The Cavs are also coping with the absence of Brazilian big man Anderson Varejao, who is out for the season with a ruptured Achilles tendon.
Kevin Love had 28 points and 19 rebounds for the Cavs, who nevertheless lost for the fifth time in six games.
Cavs coach David Blatt said playing the game amid the trade reports—and with the players involved pulled from the contest at the last minute, was tough.
“I think the guys played under some pretty adverse conditions and mentally they responded very well because it’s never easy to have that kind of thing happen,” Blatt said.
Love said having just nine players available was tough, “but we still felt like we should have won the game.”
“We had it under control,” said Love, whose Cavs led by as many as 17 in the third quarter and were up 86-76 with 6:07 to play.
“We just didn’t bury them. We felt like as a team we should have beat them.”