ATLANTA — The 76ers, at least some version of them, arrived Friday evening at the State Farm Arena.
Tobias Harris was on the bench in street clothes. James Harden and sixth man De’Anthony Melton, who were also in street clothes, joined him there at the conclusion of the first quarter. But the Sixers’ other three starters, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and P.J. Tucker, were not with the team inside the arena.
The Atlanta Hawks, who had something to play for, were expected to take full advantage of the Sixers’ undermanned roster while they rested their top players for the playoffs. The Sixers, instead, pulled off a surprising 136-131 overtime victory.
The Sixers are locked into the East’s No. 3 seed and will face the sixth-seeded Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the playoffs. Brooklyn (45-36) clinched the sixth seed with Miami’s loss to Washington on Friday night before the Nets’ victory over the Orlando Magic had ended.
The Sixers clung to a 133-130 lead after Jaden Springer split a pair of foul shots with 38.1 seconds left in the overtime. After a Hawks timeout, Springer picked up his sixth foul while pushing Trae Young underneath the basket.
Young split the pair of foul shots before Shake Milton grabbed the rebound. That set up Georges Niang’s 3-pointer to put the Sixers up five with 12.5 seconds left.
The Hawks (41-40) had looked to lock up the No. 8 seed for next week’s play-in tournament against a Sixers team with nothing to play for.
One of the Sixers’ highlights was the play of Springer. The second-year guard finished with a career-high 19 points on 8-for-13 shooting one night after leading the Delaware Blue Coats in the G League championship.
Meanwhile, two-way player Mac McClung finished with five points in his Sixers debut. The point guard, who was the NBA All-Star Slam Dunk Contest winner on Feb. 18, was also a key member of the Blue Coats’ two-game sweep of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the G League Finals.
Jalen McDaniels and Niang paced the Sixers with 24 points each and Danuel House Jr. added 22 off the bench. Montrezl Harrell had 11 points and 10 rebounds, with seven coming in the second quarter.
The Sixers had a commanding 52-38 rebounding advantage. This came after the Hawks had outrebounded seven straight opponents.
Young finished with game highs of 27 points and 20 assists to go with nine turnovers.
The Sixers kept things competitive despite being undermanned. Battling back from a 15-point deficit, they knotted the score at 117 on Springer’s layup with 47.5 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. The Hawks responded with a Young jumper regain the lead on the ensuing possession.
Then Springer tied the score again on a dunk with 25.9 seconds left. The game went to overtime after Shake Milton misfired on a desperation heave.
“Just competitive play,” Sixers coach Doc Rivers said of what he was looking for before the game. “As I said all year, everybody gets paid. Not just the first four or five guys. We won games like this all year. So in going into the playoffs, getting guys a lot of minutes who were not getting them, I think all of this will be good for us.”
But the Sixers (53-28) had nothing but pride to play for. With no postseason incentives, the Sixers chose to rest their key players out of caution and heel injuries.
“You can’t force guys to play,” Rivers said. “We got to do what’s good for our team.”
Is it safe to assume the Sixers’ key players won’t play in Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Nets at the Barclays Center?
“You know I won’t tell you that, but we have a plan,” Rivers said. “I think you are safe in whatever you say.”
The Sixers went with a starting lineup of McDaniels, Niang, Paul Reed, Milton and Springer. Two-way player Louis King was the only active Sixer who didn’t see any action. Like McClung, this marked the first time he was with the Sixers for a game.
“They flew in this morning separately, which is nuts because we couldn’t get one plane that had enough seats, just one of those days,” Rivers said. “I think Jaden got in around 10:30 and Louis and Mac got in around 12:30. So they all made it in.
“I texted them last night, make sure they won the G League championship, and since you’re playing tomorrow what the champagne consumption is.”
The travel day from Texas for McClung and King was actually a little longer.
McClung said they arrived not too long before arriving at the arena for their individual pregame workouts.
The extra hours of rest appeared to benefit Springer.
The second-year guard was impressive from the start with nine of his points came in the first half. He remained aggressive while being in attack-mode and applying stiff defense.
Springer stripped Young and passed to a streaking House, whose ensuing dunk pulled the Sixers within two points (112-110) with 2:54 left in regulation.
Meanwhile, McClung took awhile to find a groove. He missed his first two shots, had turnover and was a minus-9 while playing 4:13 in the first half. McClung was much better while playing 3:36 in the second half. He was made his lone shot attempt, a 3-pointer, and hit a pair of foul shots.
