LOS ANGELES — Joel Embiid raised his arms from the visitors bench, his work done for the day.
His team had built a double-digit first-half lead, again, and surrendered it, again. But there was no need for any late-game heroics this time, as the Sixers pulled away, 120-110, against the Los Angeles Clippers Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena.
The Sixers (28-16) used a 21-5 run to turn a 96-93 lead into a 117-98 lead that carried them to their eighth win in their last 10 games. Tyrese Maxey, who came off the bench but was in the closing lineup for the second consecutive game, scored seven of his 22 points during that spurt, including a 3-pointer and a shot at the rim.
Embiid finished with 41 points (12-of-22 from the floor, 15-of-18 from the free-throw line) and nine rebounds, while Tobias Harris had 20 points, six assists, six rebounds and a career-high-tying five steals.
The Sixers led by as many as 14 points in the first half, after shooting 59% from the floor, scoring 18 fastbreak points and parlaying 10 Clippers turnovers into 15 points before the break.
But the Clippers (23-23) opened the third on a 19-9 run and outscored the Sixers 37-27 overall in the period, including a finish inside by Ivica Zubac to give the Clippers their first lead, at 79-78, with less than four minutes remaining and a Terance Mann driving layup to extend that advantage to three points.
Kawhi Leonard led the Clippers with 27 points on 10-of-20 shooting, while Paul George added 13 points and eight rebounds.
The Sixers will conclude their five-game road trip Thursday at the Portland Trail Blazers and Saturday at the Sacramento Kings.
Embiid’s hot start
Another scorching start for Embiid propelled the Sixers to a double-digit lead in the first half. He scored 28 of his points before the break on 10-of-15 from the floor and 6-of-8 from the free-throw line. It was Embiid’s seventh half this season with at least 25 points, which was tied for the most in the NBA entering Tuesday.
Embiid scored nine points in the first five minutes, including a mid-range pull-up, a 3-pointer and a follow off a Harris miss. Following his rest, he immediately powered his way to an and-1 finish, then converted a transition layup. After perhaps his only blemish — whiffing on an attempted alley-oop layup — he buried a 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer to give the Sixers a 63-52 lead.
Harris homecoming
Harris, who played for the Clippers from 2018-19, sure looked comfortable facing his former team – especially early. He scored 14 of his 20 points in the first half.
He caught fire in the second quarter, while initially playing with a lineup of Tyrese Maxey, Shake Milton, Georges Niang and Montrezl Harrell. He hit a couple tough pull-up jumpers. Then as the starters began to filter back in, he buried a corner 3-pointer to push the Sixers’ lead back to 53-41 with about four minutes to play in the first half. Later, he finished a layup in traffic to make the score 58-48.
Sixth Man Maxey, Part 2
In his second consecutive game as the sixth man, Maxey started slow but was massively impactful late.
He drilled three 3-pointers and sank two free throws in the first three minutes of the final period to put the Sixers up 101-93. Then his layup with less than six minutes to play extended that advantage to 111-98.
Maxey entered for De'Anthony Melton at the 5:15 mark of the first quarter, and hit an off-balance jumper through contact for the old-fashioned three-point play just before the buzzer. His high-arching jumper early in the second gave the Sixers a 39-27 advantage. He also played the final two minutes of the first half.
He entered around the same point in the third, rattling home a jumper in the period’s final minute and nearly making another when a foul was called before the ball fell off the rim.
Niang, Milton and Harrell quickly followed Maxey subs late in the first quarter, while Matisse Thybulle did not play until late in the third quarter.
Tucker, who has played sparingly during fourth quarters recently, was part of the closing lineup before the benches emptied instead of Melton.
