In the absence of Ben Simmons, the Philadelphia 76ers fight their way through four quarters and overtime to pull off another home victory.
After what felt like an eternity, the Philadelphia 76ers were back in action against the Brooklyn Nets.
This was Joel Embiid’s first game playing against the Nets this season. Rocking a fresh new cut (which looks like the process days), he came out looking refreshed from the All-Star break. Embiid dropped 11 points in just five minutes. With Al Horford coming off the bench, Embiid had a lot more room to work with in and around the paint, which worked well. Josh Richardson also came out with a new look. He seemed like he was still riding his hot streak from the Clippers game last week.
The first quarter had the Sixers looking like the title contenders they were meant to be, but the second quarter… well, that’s another story. About two minutes into the quarter, the Sixers were missing Simmons as the Nets began to heat up and take their first lead of the game.
It seemed like the Sixers were physically incapable of snagging a defensive rebound and were getting dominated in the paint. As Brett Brown angrily took a timeout at the eight-minute mark, the home crowd erupted into boos with their team down 10.
The third quarter showed small pockets of hope for a Sixers win. But just as they were slowly crawling back into the game, DeAndre Jordan forced a Sixers timeout after a one-handed slam to give his team an 11-point lead. Alec Burks, who had been having himself a game, hustled downcourt for a one-handed driving layup to cut the Nets’ lead to just four points. That was just the beginning of the Sixers ultimately coming within one by the end of the third.
In usual Sixers fashion, the fourth quarter was gut-wrenching, nail-biting, and white-knuckled. Embiid was HUGE down the stretch. He tied up the game twice from the line and then blocked former Sixer Wilson Chandler to force overtime.
The Nets were obviously worn out by the time overtime came around. The point that they scored was off of a free throw by Spender Dinwiddie. Burks came up big and helped the Sixers to the finish line after he scored five of his 19 points in overtime.
After this 112-104 victory, the Sixers are now not only 26-2 at home, but also only half a game away from moving up to the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference due to the Miami Heat losing to the Atlanta Hawks, 129-124.