It was there for the taking, again. It nearly escaped, again. But, in the end, even after needing an extra five minutes, the 76ers’ pursuits ended Friday at The Center
Trying for an eighth time, the team finally earned its first victory of the season.
“The group is very tight, it’s together,” said Brett Brown, after his Sixers outlasted the Indiana Pacers in overtime, 109-105. “We believe genuinely that good days add up. I remind them of that. There’s still a long ways to go. But the bottom line is we got our first win, and the room feels great about themselves. I feel happy for them.”
Friday’s result didn’t come without its share of dramatics, and couldn’t have been possible without the massive efforts of the Sixers’ 7-foot-2 center. After subbing in with four and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter, Cameroon’s Joel Embiid posted nine of the Sixers’ final 11 points in regulation, and 14 of their last 24 points overall.
The rookie finished with a career-high 25 points (6-18 fg, 1-3 3fg, 12-14 ft) and seven rebounds.
“It feels great,” said Embiid, an NBA winner for the first time. “Getting the chance to make shots in the clutch and make plays in the clutch is a learning process for me, and you got to trust it.”
Despite having fulfilled his 24 minute allotment by the end of the fourth period, Embiid returned to the floor with one minute, 57 seconds to go in overtime, and the Sixers down one. Indiana wouldn’t score again, while the big man tallied the final five points of the night to get the Sixers across the finish line.
“I thought it was up,” Embiid said of his playing time budget. “I thought I wasn’t going to play anymore. I was kind of yelling at them, ‘Let me play,’ and crying a little bit, but they let me play and we got the win, so that’s good.”
Did Brown know all along that, if push came to shove, he would go back to the big man?
“Kind of,” Brown said with a guilty chuckle, before recovering. “I mean no.”
Brown said the Sixers’ sports science staff gave him clearance.
“I had to check with my lawyer and all that,” joked Brown. “But [Embiid] came in and he won the game for us. A lot of other people contributed to that, but Jo was the focal point at the end.”
The magnitude of Embiid’s impact wasn’t lost on his teammates.
“Of course, he is the guy who will one day, now he is great, but one day he will be you know really star,” Dario Saric told the Sixers Radio Network. “He got more than, I don’t know, 10, 12, 15 All-Star Game. He’ll be MVP of league, because that guy, he can. I’m very happy because I have the chance to play with someone like him.”
Saric, for his part, emerged with an essential contribution in the waning seconds of overtime, and the Sixers up by two points.
After a stepback jumper from Embiid went awry, Saric gave up his body, falling to the ground while attempting to fend off three Pacers for a pivotal rebound. The 22-year old Croatian came away with the loose ball and ushered it over to Embiid, who was promptly fouled.
Embiid then toed the line, and converted two insurance free throws that put the contest out of Indiana’s reach.
“I think it’s in my blood, fight for every ball,” said Saric, who posted eight points (3-6 fg, 1-2 3fg), five rebounds, two assists, and three steals. “I want to say I play in Philadelphia, here is Philadelphia. Play hard, Philadelphia real, Philadelphia edge. That’s me, you know. You must give 100 percent every game. It’s hard to say. You must fight for everything in life.”
Like Embiid, Friday represented Saric’s first win at the NBA level.
“I want to first of all say thank you to all the fans,” he said. “They really support us. They believe in us until last second. Feeling is great. You work all your life to come here to have chance to play against best players in the world. It means a lot for me.
Having suffered several narrow setbacks since the start of the season, coming up short in hard-fought games against the Thunder, Magic, Cavaliers, and, just 48 hours earlier, the Pacers, the Sixers nearly saw a painfully familiar close-call script repeat itself.
Thanks to a 16-5 run fueled by Embiid’s fourth quarter flurry, the Sixers held a 100-95 advantage with 25.4 seconds to go. A driving and-1 lay-up from Monta Ellis and two free throws from Paul George, with a Sixers turnover sandwiched in between, allowed Indiana to even the tilt at 100-100 with 2.8 seconds on the clock.
Embiid had a chance to win the game with a 3-point heave at the buzzer, but the shot was off the mark.
The Pacers led twice in O.T., before Embiid put the game away.
“I thought he struggled for most of the game,” said Brown. “Those go-to guys, that’s the NBA. You find your guy and you go, and you play through them and off them and so on. Jo came in, and I thought his game just went to a much higher level given what we had seen throughout the 48 minutes.”
While Embiid was certainly Friday’s headline, other players, in addition to Saric, stepped up as well.
With Jahlil Okafor being saved for Saturday’s game in Atlanta, Richaun Holmes spearheaded the Sixers’ dominant rebounding efforts. He grabbed 12 boards, helping the Sixers outdo Indiana by 14 on the glass.
Four of Holmes’ caroms came on the offensive end. The Sixers outscored the Pacers 18-2 in second chance points.
Nik Stauskas came off the bench to rack up 14 points (5-7 fg, 2-4 3fg). His 3-pointer in the final minute of the first half cut the Sixers’ deficit to one, after they had trailed by as many as 14. He was a key presence down the stretch of the third frame as well, serving as the spark for a go-ahead surge.
Ersan Ilyasova was yet another reserve to rise to the occasion. He cranked out 14 points (4-6 fg, 3-6 3fg, 3-3 ft) and 11 rebounds for his first double-double of the season.
George, the Indiana All-Star, topped all participants with 26 points (9-20 fg, 1-4 3fg, 7-7 ft).
Embiid, however, left the lasting impression Friday, not just for the home crowd of 17,643 in attendance, but for Brown as well.
“We see it grow before our eyes,” Brown said, discussing Embiid’s development. “We saw the best of Joel Embiid when it mattered the most.”
His performance was enough to make the difference between Friday’s game, and the seven that preceded it.
The Sixers complete their second back-to-back set of the young season Saturday by traveling down to Atlanta. Back on October 29th, the Sixers fell to the Hawks, 104-72, in what was the second game of the year for both clubs. Joel Embiid and Sergio Rodriguez each tallied 14 pts that night. Although Embiid isn’t expected to suit up Saturday at Philips Arena, the intent is for him to travel with the Sixers on their two-game trip, and play Monday in Houston. At 6-2, the Hawks boasted the third-best record in the Eastern Conference as of Friday evening.
By Brian Seltzer for Sixers.com
First appeared on NBA.com Global
