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.”
