Wild win carries Philadelphia 76ers to 3-0 series lead over Brooklyn Nets
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Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers dribbles against Mikal Bridges of the Brooklyn Nets during the first half of Game 3 of the Eastern Conference play-offs.
PHOTO: AFP
NEW YORK – The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Brooklyn Nets 102-97 on Thursday in a rugged clash that featured two ejections and a controversial kick from Joel Embiid.
The Sixers are one win away from a sweep of their National Basketball Association (NBA) first-round play-off series.
Down by five with 2min 15sec remaining at Brooklyn’s Barclays Centre, Philadelphia surged home to take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference clash, with the Nets well aware that no NBA team have come back from 3-0 down to win a series.
Embiid, Philadelphia’s MVP (Most Valuable Player) candidate, scored just 14 points but pulled down 10 rebounds and produced a crucial block with eight seconds remaining and Philadelphia up by two.
Nets coach Jacque Vaughn expressed frustration that Embiid was even in the game then.
He marvelled that the Sixers star was not ejected when he aimed a kick from the floor at Nic Claxton’s groin as the Nets player stepped over him in the first quarter.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in my career before,” Vaughn said.
“For a guy to intentionally kick someone in an area that none of us want to be kicked at, and for him to continue to play. I’ve never seen that before.”
Sixers star James Harden was tossed late in the third quarter after piling his shoulder into Royce O’Neale’s body on a drive to the basket.
And Brooklyn’s Claxton was ejected early in the fourth when he picked up a second technical foul for a muscle-flexing taunt of Embiid.
“We stayed together,” Embiid said of the hard-fought victory.
“We kept playing through everything that was going on.”
Tyrese Maxey was key to the late surge, scoring 10 of his team-high 25 points in the fourth quarter.
His step-back three-pointer with 44.7 seconds left gave the Sixers a 99-96 lead.
Spencer Dinwiddie cut the deficit by one with a free throw and looked headed for a game-tying layup when Embiid soared up to reject the shot and the Sixers held on.
“We didn’t have our stuff, we didn’t do a lot of things right,” Sixers coach Doc Rivers said.
“A lot of things didn’t go our way – we just hung in there and won the game.”
Harden was steaming at his ejection – for a flagrant 2 foul – over what he insisted was a normal basketball play.
“Honestly, I don’t think it was a foul,” he said. “When somebody’s draped over you like that defensively, it’s just a natural basketball reaction.”
Mikal Bridges led the Nets with 26 points and Dinwiddie added 20, but Brooklyn are in danger of being swept for the second straight season.
Embiid, who went to the locker room briefly in the first quarter and could be seen limping later in the game, said the Sixers need to be better in Saturday’s Game 4 – and that he would be ready.
“I’m OK,” he said. “I took a lot of shots today, but I’m fine.” AFP
