The wait is over, and Game 5 between the Sixers and Heat is underway at FTX Arena in Miami. As we mentioned earlier, this game is an extremely crucial one in the series, as the winner of Game 5 in a best-of-seven series has gone on to win the series 82% of the time.
Stay locked right here all night for the latest news, highlights and analysis.
— Matt Mullin
Magic Johnson joins Sixers owners’ bid for Broncos
Sixers managing partner Josh Harris during Game 4 between the Sixers and Miami Heat.
Sixers managing partner Josh Harris during Game 4 between the Sixers and Miami Heat.
YONG KIM / Staff Photographer
Can Magic Johnson dish out an assist in 76ers managing partner Josh Harris’s attempt to purchase an NFL franchise? Johnson, a five-time NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers and a Hall of Famer, has joined Harris’ group in its bid for the Denver Broncos, a league source confirmed.
Walmart heir Rob Walton is the favorite to purchase the team. The world’s 19th-richest person, Walton has an estimated net worth of $70.4 billion.
Harris reportedly has an estimated net worth of approximately $7.56 billion and he has experience with professional sports franchises. Johnson brings diversity to the group as a high-profile, well-respected Black investor. His addition could make the group more attractive once the bidding intensities in the coming weeks.
Johnson, also is part of the investing groups for the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks and Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Football Club, was part of a group that bought the Los Angeles Dodgers for $2 billion, of which Johnson invested $50 million. Todd Boehly, who was part of that group, is bidding for the Broncos, who could go for as much as $4 billion, in a separate group.
In March, Harris and Sixers co-managing partner David Blitzer were part of a group that submitted a bid for Premier League soccer team Chelsea F.C., which was sold last week to a group that included Boehly. Harris and Blitzer run Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, a sports entertainment company which owns and operates the Sixers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, among other assets.
» READ MORE: Magic Johnson joining Sixers owner Josh Harris’ group in bid to buy the NFL’s Denver Broncos
— Keith Pompey
Sixers rolling with same starting lineup for Game 5
pic.twitter.com/ucXB76SOwX
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) May 10, 2022
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6 hours ago
Niang fighting through knee injury
Sixers forward Georges Niang during his team's last game in Miami.
YONG KIM / Staff Photographer
Sixers reserve power forward Georges Niang shot just 22.2% on three-pointers through the first four games of the Eastern Conference semifinals series against the Miami Heat. This comes after Niang shot 66.7% from behind the arc in the opening-round series vs. the Toronto Raptors.
He missed the final two games of the regular season due to left knee patella tendinopathy. And it’s obvious that his knee appears to bother him, at times, while moving around the court.
But Niang isn’t making any excuses.
“It’s something we have been addressing since the end of the year and pushing through,” Niang said prior to Game 5. “I mean, it’s the playoffs. Joel [Embiid] is playing with a broken face and thumb. If I’m going to complain about a knee, I don’t have any place to be on the court.”
— Keith Pompey