Bulls upset Sixers, Timberwolves rally to down Heat

LOS ANGELES: The Chicago Bulls withstood a 40-point double-double from Philadelphia star Joel Embiid on Monday (Dec 18) to snap the 76ers' six-game NBA winning streak with a 108-104 victory.

Coby White scored 24 points and Nikola Vucevic added 23 for the Bulls, who saw a 12-point lead to start the fourth quarter whittled to one point on Tyrese Maxey's three-pointer with 33.2 seconds remaining.

DeMar DeRozan, who finished with 15 points, drained a trio of free-throws to give Chicago some breathing room, and reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Embiid came up empty on two possessions in the waning seconds.

Embiid added 14 rebounds to notch his 11th straight game of at least 30 points and 10 rebounds, but the Sixers could not maintain the momentum after racing to a 16-4 lead in the opening minutes.

"I think we kind of forgot our fundamentals," Embiid said. "I thought we made a pretty good run. We came back in the game... we had opportunities, we came back. We fought. Just came up short."

The Minnesota Timberwolves rallied late for a 112-108 victory over the Heat in Miami to match Boston for best record in the league at 20-5.

Anthony Edwards scored 32 points and Karl-Anthony Towns added 18 for the Timberwolves, who tightened the defensive screws in the second half to overcome an early 17-point deficit.

Down by six going into the final period, the Timberwolves took the lead on Michael Conley's three-pointer with 8:37 to play. Miami would edge ahead again before Naz Reid's turnaround shot gave Minnesota a one-point advantage and they would not trail again.

The Wolves notched their league-leading seventh win when trailing by double digits at any point in the game and Minnesota center Rudy Gobert said the team needs to find a way to start