CLEVELAND — Joel Embiid collected the loose ball near the rim, laid the ball in through contact and pumped his arm in celebration.
That and-one finish gave the 76ers a two-possession lead in the waning minutes of Sunday’s game at the Cavaliers. And on a night the Sixers’ MVP candidate was initially listed as questionable to play with ankle soreness, Embiid’s latest masterpiece of 44 points, 17 rebounds, and 5 blocks kept his team afloat during a clunky first half and them pushed them across the finish line in a 112-108 victory at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
“He was dominant,” coach Doc Rivers said. " … He had 44, I bet he’ll tell you he missed probably five or six point-blank shots that he never misses. That’s a great example [of] sometimes your offense doesn’t go the way you want it to go and you’ve just got to hang in there, and he did that. The whole team did.”
The comeback win helped the Sixers (48-30) officially clinch a top-6 playoff spot and keep pace in a competitive top of the Eastern Conference standings. They remained in fourth place but now have the identical record as the third-place Bucks (who clinched the 2-1 series tiebreaker with last week’s overtime win) and a half-game behind the second-place Boston Celtics (49-30). They entered the night 2 1/2 games behind the first-place Miami Heat (50-28), who played at the fifth-place Toronto Raptors Sunday night.
The Sixers had to rally from a 12-point first-half deficit to win. They initially closed the gap when a three-pointer by James Harden and an old-fashioned three-point play from Tyrese Maxey tied the score at 63 with about eight minutes to play in the third. Both teams went back and forth until Embiid’s and-one gave the Sixers a two-possession lead at 101-97, before Harden drew a foul and hit both free throws to increase that advantage to six points with less than three minutes to play.
With the Sixers clinging to a 107-106 lead with less than 15 seconds to play, Embiid altered a shot at the rim by Cavaliers All-Star Darius Garland before a pair of Harden free throws that all but sealed the game. As Matisse Thybulle poked away a steal that led to a Tobias Harris breakaway dunk, Embiid raised his arms into the air.
Embiid, who entered Sunday ranked third in the NBA in scoring at 30 points per game, feasted on a Cavaliers frontcourt that was missing All-Star big man Jarrett Allen and rookie of the year contender Evan Mobley.
Harden nabs triple-double, but shooting struggles continue
Harden pulled up from three as the first-half clock ticked down, held his follow-through as the ball bounced off the rim and then started walking toward the Sixers’ locker room.
Harden notched a triple-double, finishing with 21 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists. But he went 4-of-13 from the field. He entered Sunday shooting 36.6% from the floor, including 30% from beyond the arc in his last 13 games. Those percentages went down following Sunday’s outing.
Harden went 1-of-9 from the floor in the first half, but did generate 10 points by making 7 of his 8 free-throw attempts.
Harden finally got another to fall in the third when he took a punch pass from Embiid for a three-pointer from the left wing. A driving layup early in the fourth put the Sixers up, 85-80. His driving floater with about a minute to play gave his team a 107-104 lead.
Rough start before frenetic finish
The Sixers’ first-half numbers were an eyesore.
They shot 30.8% from the floor, and allowed the Cavaliers to make more than half of their field goals (20 of 39) and three-point attempts (9 of 17). They committed nine turnovers that the Cavaliers parlayed into 10 points. Maxey played only eight minutes because of foul trouble and Harden and Harris were a combined 2-of-14 from the floor.
Those miscues helped the Cavaliers build a 12-point lead when Lamar Stevens converted a difficult and-one finish early in the second quarter. But Embiid’s 13 points in the period on 3-of-5 shooting — including a three-pointer at the 3-minute, 35-second mark — and 8-of-8 mark from the free-throw line helped the Sixers close the gap to 55-49 at the break.
Maxey’s turnaround
After picking up three quick fouls, Maxey was not much of a factor in eight first-half minutes. But the second-year guard quickly reminded why he is so important to the Sixers after the break. He scored 8 of his 11 points in the third to help the Sixers make their initial charge.
His and-one layup tied the game at 63 with about eight minutes to play in the third. Then, he collected a steal and dished a pass ahead to Harris for a dunk that evened the score at 65. Another Maxey bucket on the Sixers’ next possession gave the Sixers a two-point advantage. Then, he answered a three-pointer by Rajon Rondo — a veteran Maxey trains with in the offseason — with his own shot from beyond the arc to put the Sixers up 81-80 heading to the final period.
Maxey’s first-half absence threw off the Sixers’ rotation, and led to some interesting lineup combinations. They closed the first quarter with Harden, Shake Milton, Danny Green, Georges Niang, and DeAndre Jordan. They then started the second quarter with Harden, Green, Harris, Jordan, and Furkan Korkmaz.
