CLEVELAND — The home crowd booed as James Harden walked from one side of the court to the other, upset that Isaac Okoro’s and Evan Mobley’s swarming defense had drawn the foul.
Yet the 76ers’ star stepped to the free-throw line and drained both shots — and then another two when the Cavaliers fouled on purpose — which sealed a 118-114 victory Wednesday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
The Sixers (42-26) built a 17-point first-half lead, then needed to answer the Cavaliers’ second-half charge. Cleveland outscored the Sixers 31-13 in the third quarter to flip a 13-point deficit into a 90-85 lead when Brandon Goodwin and Kevin Love hit back-to-back three-pointers to close the period.
Neither team created separation until the final two minutes, when Tyrese Maxey buried a three-pointer with the shot clock winding down to give the Sixers a 110-106 lead.
The Cavaliers’ Caris LeVert answered with a layup, but Embiid followed with his own finish inside. Cleveland’s Darius Garland then hit two free throws to again get within one possession at 112-110 before Harden’s decisive free throws. LeVert made things interesting when he converted an and-one finish that cut the Sixers’ lead to 116-114 with 8.3 seconds to play, but he missed the ensuing free throw and Maxey grabbed the rebound and hit the free throws that completed the night’s scoring.
The Sixers got another monster outing from Joel Embiid (35 points, 17 rebounds, 5 assists) on his 28th birthday, and efficient nights from Tobias Harris (19 points on 8-of-13 shooting, 6 rebounds, 3 assists) and Maxey (25 points on 9-of-15 shooting). Harden went just 5-of-12 from the floor in his ninth game with the Sixers but went 10-of-12 from the free-throw line and totaled 11 assists.
For the third time in less than five weeks, the Sixers were a cut above an upstart Cavaliers team that could be their first-round playoff opponent. They will go for the 4-0 regular-season series sweep on April 3 in Cleveland.
Happy birthday, Mr. Embiid
Embiid collected the ball that had briefly been knocked away, turned and fired from deep as the shot clock expired.
Bang.
It was quite the 28th birthday for the MVP contender, who did not look like a man who was questionable to play earlier in the day with back soreness and had played heavy minutes in the Sixers’ past two games.
He made all six of his first-quarter shots, primarily on turnaround jumpers against a Cavaliers’ frontcourt that was overmatched without All-Star Jarrett Allen on the floor because of a broken finger. He had collected his 35th double-double of the season — and matched his season average in assists — by halftime.
Embiid squashed the Cavaliers’ initial third-quarter rally when he followed a Lauri Markkanen dunk that cut the Sixers’ lead to 74-68 by collecting his own miss and converting the follow through contact for the three-point play, then taking a feed from Harden for a streaking one-handed dunk.
About midway through the fourth, Embiid drew contact on a jumper to tie the game at 98 and then drew a foul and sank both free throws to give the Sixers a two-point lead.
Bench still quiet — until late
Despite the balanced scoring efforts from the Sixers’ starters, their bench was outscored 41-13. But that group made some key plays in the final period.
Stretch forward Georges Niang struggled from the floor for the second consecutive game (1-of-5), but hit a massive corner three-pointer to give the Sixers a 103-101 lead with less than five minutes to play and also collected a crucial offensive rebound and steal late in the game. Center DeAndre Jordan whiffed while trying to slam home an alley-oop dunk, but in the early fourth finished the slam from Harden to cut the Cavaliers’ advantage to 91-90.
That second unit went 2-of-9 from the floor in the first half, the only makes coming on two Danny Green corner threes. Green was the Sixers’ first sub and played stints alongside fellow wing Matisse Thybulle against the Cavaliers’ bigger lineup, and played crunch-time minutes at the end of the first half while Thybulle sat with three fouls.
Shake Milton only played three first-half minutes and was minus-6 during that time. Isaiah Joe entered the game for the first time at the start of the fourth quarter and picked up two quick fouls in four minutes.
