Jimmy Butler and 76ers Hold Off Late Push by Raptors

Jimmy Butler had 30 points and 11 rebounds, James Ennis scored 13 points and the Philadelphia 76ers held on to beat the Toronto Raptors, 94-89, on Monday night, tying their Eastern Conference semifinal series at one game apiece.

Down by 19 points in the first half, Toronto cut the deficit to one late in the third quarter, then went cold to start the fourth, missing six of its first seven shots.

The Raptors kept coming, however. Lowry made 3-pointers on both sides of a pair of foul shots by Butler, cutting Philadelphia’s lead to 90-87 with 1 minute 36 seconds left in the game. Toronto got the ball back, and Pascal Siakam scored on a layup to make it a one-point game. Joel Embiid, who had a quiet night offensively, answered Siakam’s basket with a driving shot at the other end, restoring the three-point advantage with 24 seconds left.

After Lowry nearly turned the ball over, Danny Green missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer, and Philadelphia’s Tobias Harris came up with the rebound, his 11th. Harris was fouled and sealed the victory by making a pair of free-throws with 3.9 seconds left.

Embiid scored 12 points in 32 minutes despite missing the morning shootaround because of flulike symptoms.

Kawhi Leonard scored 35 points, Siakam had 21 and Lowry 20. Toronto shot 10 for 37 from 3-point range and 33 for 91 overall as its franchise-record five-game postseason winning streak came to an end.

Toronto missed six of its first eight shots and went on to shoot just 7 for 24 in the first quarter, missing its first seven from 3-point range before Norm Powell connected.

Game 3 is Thursday night in Philadelphia.

ROCKETS’ PAUL FINED A day after the Houston Rockets complained about the officiating following a 104-100 loss to the Golden State Warriors in the opener of a best-of-seven semifinal series, the N.B.A. handed Houston’s Chris Paul a $35,000 fine for “aggressively confronting and recklessly making contact with a game official,” while also confirming in its Last-Two Minute Report that no foul should have been called on Draymond Green’s defense of a 3-point try by James Harden with 10.1 seconds left that could have tied the game.

The report did, however, state that three Golden State fouls were missed — including two against Curry, each of which would have resulted in his fouling out.

On the 3-point attempt that Harden was adamant was a foul, the N.B.A. said, “Green jumps in front of Harden and would have missed him if Harden hadn’t extended his legs.”

The Warriors expressed surprise that the Rockets have made their grievances quite so public, with Coach Steve Kerr saying it’s unfortunate this became the focus in a series between the two powerhouses of the Western Conference.

“I thought we were going to talk about the game,” joked Kerr, who pretended to flop Monday on San Francisco Chronicle columnist Ann Killion to make his point.

Houston Coach Mike D’Antoni said the officials came to talk to him during halftime about missed foul calls on the Warriors closing out on the Rockets’ 3-point shooters.

“I’m going to try to be a nice guy because I really don’t want to give the charity to them, I’d rather have my charity have the money,” D’Antoni said. “So I mean the response was they came in halftime and said they missed them. That’s what they told me. They missed four of them. That’s 12 foul shots. So be it. They’re trying to do the best they can do.”

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