Here is a great Nicolas Batum again at the best time. Three months before the start of the Olympic Games, and while his Philadelphia Sixers team was playing for a place in the playoffs against the Miami Heat, the 35-year-old French veteran pulled out all the stops this Wednesday evening.
Author of 20 points and 5 rebounds, “Batman” largely contributed to the close victory of his teammates (105-104) which guaranteed them a place in the first round of the playoffs against the New York Knicks.
“He’s the reason we won”
The French international especially shone in the second half, after seeing Miami go in front at the break (51-39), due in particular to an out-of-form Joel Embiid (10 points and 2/8 shooting at this point). time). “I think I looked a little too hard for Joel at first. And afterwards, I took my responsibilities,” explained Nicolas Batum after the meeting.
Direct reaction in the second half, the Sixers' all-purpose winger scored 17 points in the second half, driven by an insolent 3-point success (5/8) at the Wells Fargo Center, before making a counter decisive at the end of the match on Tyler Herro, top scorer of the match (25 points), on the verge of putting the two teams back on an equal footing in the money-time (99-96).
If Embiid finished at the top of the statistics for the Sixers with 23 points and 15 rebounds, the man of the match for the Sixers was definitely Nicolas Batum. “He is the reason why we won, he took big shots and defensively, he was even better,” admitted the American pivot. The 76ers will need an equally efficient Batum if they want to overcome the obstacle of the New York Knicks, 2nd in the regular season, in the first round of the play-offs from April 20.