PHILADELPHIA — The Wells Fargo Center crowd rose to its feet with about a minute remaining, trying to will James Harden to the basket with the 76ers trailing by three points. The All-Star point guard slid past his defender, but his layup attempt rolled off the rim.
That was not the Sixers’ final opportunity to take a late lead. But it represented a Sunday night when they could not sustain a fast start and fell to the Toronto Raptors, 93-88, in the first game of a key late-season back-to-back set.
Up next for the Sixers: the Eastern Conference-leading Miami Heat, for a game that tips off 23 hours after Sunday’s start and is a prime date the Sixers could need to rest stars such as Harden and Joel Embiid.
