Embiid scores career-best 33 as 76ers down Nets
PHILADELPHIA -- Rookie center Joel Embiid scored a career-high 33 points, including the go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:43 left, as the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Brooklyn Nets 108-107 on Sunday night, snapping an eight-game home losing streak.
Embiid, who shot 12-of-17 from the floor, also contributed 10 rebounds and three blocked shots.
Ersan Ilyasova added 22 points and Robert Covington had 15 for the Sixers, who won for just the third time in their last 13 games.
Brook Lopez had 22 points, nine rebounds and eight assists for Brooklyn, which dropped its ninth straight road game. Joe Harris generated 19 points, matching his career high, and Jeremy Lin chipped in 16 for the Nets.
Ilyasova and backup guard T.J. McConnell each contributed four points to a 13-0 flurry spanning the third and fourth quarters, giving Philadelphia a 94-86 lead with 9:09 left in the game. Brooklyn surged back ahead 98-97 on Lopez's jumper in the lane with 2:53 to play.
Embiid then nailed his second 3-pointer of the game from the top of the circle, putting Philadelphia ahead to stay.
Brooklyn did draw within one on Jeremy Lin's 3-pointer with 1:35 remaining, and after a Sixers turnover had a chance to go in front in the closing seconds. Trevor Booker and Sean Kilpatrick both missed shots and Embiid grabbed the rebound and made two free throws with 2.5 seconds left, making it 104-101.
Brooklyn twice made it a one-possession in the last 5.2 seconds, the final time when Lin sank a 3-pointer with 2.5 seconds to play, cutting the gap to 108-107. Gerald Henderson very nearly threw away the inbounds pass, but the Nets were unable to track down the loose ball before the final buzzer sounded.
Neither team led by more than five points in the first half, when there were nine ties and 18 lead changes. The Nets reeled off the last six points of the second quarter, including a go-ahead 3-pointer by Harris, to take a 57-54 lead at the break.
Lopez had 19 points to lead Brooklyn, while Ilyasova had 13 for Philadelphia.
The Nets extended their lead to nine early in the third quarter, but Embiid packed 15 of his points into the period, leaving Brooklyn with an 86-83 cushion heading into the final quarter.
NOTES: 76ers coach Brett Brown said before the game that C/PF Nerlens Noel will be out of the team's frontcourt rotation for the foreseeable future, though he said it had nothing to do with Noel complaining about his role after Friday's loss to the Lakers. Rather, Brown said, it was because the "balance and flow" of the team is thrown off when he has to try to find minutes for not only Noel but C/PF Joel Embiid and C/PF Jahlil Okafor, all of whom are best suited to play center. "I think a lot of people know it was going to get to a point like this," Noel said. "Now I'm the one that's in it, so I'm going to deal with it the best way possible. That just means being professional and getting better at every aspect that doesn't involve being on the court, in the game." ... Philadelphia G/F Nik Stauskas did not play because of a sore left knee. ... Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said G Jeremy Lin's back is "feeling much better." Lin played just his third game since Nov. 2, after missing 17 with a strained hamstring and another with back tightness.