PHILADELPHIA — James Harden watched his two overtime free-throw attempts clang off the rim.
But the 76ers’ star guard made up for it on the ... defensive end?
Harden’s two-armed block on the Indiana Pacers’ Bennedict Mathurin, combined with two free throws from Tobias Harris, pushed the Sixers to a wild 129-126 overtime win Wednesday night at the Wells Fargo Center in a game Sixers’ MVP contender Joel Embiid missed because of foot soreness.
The Sixers took the lead for good when, after a De’Anthony Melton corner three-pointer, Montrezl Harrell collected the ball off a Tyrese Maxey layup that rimmed out and matched his ferocious dunk with a ferocious holler that put the Sixers up 127-124 with less than two minutes to play in the extra frame.
A Tyrese Haliburton bucket cut that cushion to one point, but the Sixers’ defense held the rest of the way.
After letting a 13-point second-half lead slip, the Sixers needed a frenetic close to regulation to get to overtime. Trailing 120-116 following Myles Turner layup with less than a minute to play, Maxey collected a steal and breakaway layup, before Harris followed a Maxey miss to tie the score with 6.1 seconds to play. Hield missed a floater at the buzzer.
Without the NBA’s second-leading scorer in Embiid, seven Sixers finished in double figures to record their 11th win in their past 13 games.
Harden led the Sixers with 26 points, eight assists, and six rebounds, while Harrell scored a season-high 19 points on 8-of-9 from the floor. Melton finished with 19 points on 5-of-8 from deep and seven rebounds, Maxey added 17 points, five rebounds, and six assists, while Harris had 19 points and 10 rebounds, Shake Milton had 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting and four assists, and Georges Niang had 11 points on 3-of-4 from three-point range.
The Sixers led 97-84 at the end of the third quarter, after Maxey got to the basket for a driving layup in the final seconds. But Indiana used a 14-2 run to turn a double-digit deficit into 113-112 lead when Buddy Hield buried back-to-back three-pointers and a Mathruin basket counted because of a goaltending call with less than three minutes to play.
Hield finished with 24 points on 6-of-14 from three-point range. Indiana also got 17 points and six rebounds from Jalen Smith and 19 from Mathurin off the bench, while Haliburton flirted with a triple-double with 16 points, 12 assists, and seven rebounds. Turner, who was largely neutralized by the undersized Sixers in the first half, finished with 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
The Sixers finish this three-game homestand Friday night against the Chicago Bulls before playing Sunday afternoon at the Detroit Pistons.
Maxey minutes
With Embiid sidelined and the freedom to up his minutes, Maxey returned to the starting lineup for the first time since his fractured foot. He put together his most well-rounded outing in his three games so far.
Maxey still was not quite back to his original rotation, however. He played the first quarter’s initial six minutes, then returned late in the period to run point on the second unit comprised of Shake Milton, Matisse Thybulle, Niang, and Harrell. During that time, he hit a spinning jumper, dished a wraparound pass to Harrell for a dunk, and found Niang for an open three-pointer. But he did not close the first half with the rest of the starters.
Maxey was impactful at the start of the third quarter, hitting a pull-up three-pointer, finding Harden for a deep shot, and aggressively driving to the basket. His layup in the third quarter’s final seconds put the Sixers up, 97-84.
He ran the same group at the start of the fourth, delivering a bounce pass to Thybulle that gave the Sixers a 101-90 advantage and hitting a jumper to put his team up, 106-94, before his late impact plays.
Tucker starts, but Harrell shines
The Sixers went small without Embiid, starting Tucker at center and three guards (Harden, Maxey, and Melton) alongside Harris.
Yet Harrell was their most effective big man — as evidenced by Rivers’ decision to go back to Harrell with the Sixers clinging to a one-point lead with less than four minutes to play.
In the first half, Harrell went a perfect 5-for-5 — including a finish through two defenders and celebratory flex — for 12 points. His finish off a feed from Harris late in the third quarter pushed the Sixers’ lead to 93-84. His fourth-quarter dunk gave the Sixers a 108-96 advantage with eight minutes to go.
Harrell’s early insertion was because Tucker left the game in the first quarter with an apparent leg injury sustained when he tumbled to the ground under the basket. But after a stint in the locker room and on the stationary bike near the Sixers’ bench, he re-entered with about seven minutes to play in the second quarter.
Tucker missed all four of his shots — including a floater that was well off-target before the injury and a wide-open corner three-pointer after he returned — but grabbed seven rebounds in 25 minutes. He was the only starter who did not reach double figures.
Tucker is already dealing with a pinched nerve that originates in his neck and affects his right hand, and forced him out of a Dec. 27 loss at Washington. He also missed a Dec. 31 win at the Oklahoma City Thunder — the second night of a back-to-back — for knee injury management after having arthroscopic surgery over the summer.
