Sixers duo off to solid start

LOS ANGELES • The National Basketball Association's (NBA) leading scorer Joel Embiid has called the Philadelphia 76ers' offence "unstoppable" as his burgeoning partnership with newly acquired 2018 league Most Valuable Player James Harden continues to blossom.

In New York on Sunday, Harden posted his first triple-double as a 76er and clicked again with star teammate Embiid in their 125-109 victory over the Knicks.

The 32-year-old guard, playing his second game for the Sixers since arriving in a blockbuster trade from the Brooklyn Nets which saw the wantaway Ben Simmons head the other way, notched the 68th triple-double of his career with 29 points, 16 assists and 10 rebounds.

Harden also came up with five steals and proved the perfect complement to Cameroonian centre Embiid, who scored a game-high 37 points, pulled down nine rebounds and blocked four shots.

Tyrese Maxey got in on the offensive display, scoring 21 points and grabbing seven rebounds.

"Unstoppable," Embiid, 27, said of the Sixers' offence with Harden in the mix. "So you've got to make a decision, do you stay on me or do you stay on him?

"And if you want to guard both of us, with the other guys, now you've got Matisse (Thybulle) driving to the rim or wide-open shooters..."

Harden added: "There's a lot of opportunities Joel had with and ones where he just didn't convert, but that pressure night-in and night-out consistently is going to be tough for teams to cover."

Fouling the Sixers' star duo does not seem a viable option either.

Embiid was sent to the free-throw line 27 times, the most of any player for nearly three years, and he scored 23 of his attempts at Madison Square Garden. Harden was a flawless 10-for-10 from the line.

Said Maxey: "Playing with guys like this is extremely special, playing with a former MVP and a guy up here who I think is the MVP this year."

In Harden's first two games for his new team, the Sixers averaged 129 points and won both. They are third in the Eastern Conference on (37-23), 21/2 games behind leaders Miami Heat.

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Dorian Finney-Smith tipped in his own miss to give Dallas the lead for good with 5:05 to play and the Mavericks used a 26-1 run to erase a 19-point, fourth-quarter deficit en route to a shock 107-101 win over the hosts Golden State Warriors.

Luka Doncic, the leading scorer among visitors in the three-year history of the Chase Centre, went for a game-high 34 points as part of a double-double with a game-high 11 rebounds for the Mavericks.

The Phoenix Suns (49-12), who sit one place above the Warriors at the top of the Western Conference, also lost. The surging Utah Jazz (38-22), fuelled by 26 points from Donovan Mitchell, downed the NBA-leading Suns 118-114 to post their eighth victory in nine games.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE