Kiwi centre Steven Adams has helped his Oklahoma City Thunder seemingly clinch an NBA first-round playoff showdown with Houston Rockets in the Orlando 'bubble'.
Returning from a three-game injury absence, Adams was back in the Thunder starting line-up, and contributed eight points and eight rebounds in 20 minutes, as his team rallied for a 116-115 win over Miami Heat.
Forward Mike Muscala connected on back-to-back three-pointers to first tie and then win an encounter where OKC trailled by as many as 22 points in the final quarter.
With both teams safely playoff bound, respective coaches took a cautious approach towards allocating gametime, largely resting their stars and playing their benches for extended minutes.
Miami outscored the Thunder by 29 points over the first and third quarters, and seemed to have the result well under control, before Oklahoma City mounted a furious comeback that included 12 unanswered points down the stretch.
Reserve forward Darius Bazley led the Thunder with 21 points from a team-high 27 minutes, while Heat guard Tyler Herro top-scored with 30 points and missed a possible gamewinner on the final buzzer.
Adams injured a knee against Los Angeles Lakers last week, but returned to that game - a 105-86 victory - before sitting out subsequent games as a precaution.
The latest result gives Oklahoma City a 44-27 record with one game left - against Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday (NZ time) - in the truncated regular season, after play was halted by COVID-19 in March.
They share that record with Houston, while Utah Jazz lurk one game back (43-28) in Western Conference standings, each with one game to play, but the Thunder hold a head-to-head countback advantage over both their rivals.
The Rockets fell 108-104 to Indian Pacers on Thursday, and are sweating on the health of All-Star and former Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook, who has missed three of the last four games with a leg injury.
NBA playoffs will begin next week, with Brooklyn Nets, under Kiwi general manager Sean Marks, locked into an Eastern Conference first-round match-up agains defending champions Toronto Raptors.
