The Sixers faltered in the fourth quarter Friday night and squandered their chance to split a two-game mini-series with the Cavs.

They fell to a 117-115 loss at Xfinity Mobile Arena. 

Evan Mobley slammed in a go-ahead dunk with 4.8 seconds left off of a Jaylon Tyson baseline drive and dish. Tyrese Maxey missed a deep, desperate three-pointer just before the final buzzer. 

Joel Embiid led the 22-18 Sixers with 33 points.

Maxey had 22 points and nine assists. He tied a career high with five steals.

Tyson was fantastic for the 24-19 Cavs, scoring a career-best 39 points on 13-for-17 shooting.

Cleveland’s Darius Garland, Max Strus, Dean Wade and Sam Merrill were sidelined by injuries.

The Sixers will face the Pacers on Monday night in Philadelphia. Here are observations on their loss Friday:

Different defense on Mitchell 

Though Dominick Barlow exited the Sixers’ blowout loss to the Cavs on Wednesday night after he fell hard to the floor and suffered a back contusion, the 22-year-old forward remained in the starting lineup. 

After Mitchell’s 35-point, nine-assist performance Wednesday, the Sixers placed greater emphasis on guarding him as a team. Embiid even ventured near half court to blitz an early pick-and-roll. The Sixers shaded harder help toward Mitchell on his drives and also sent some full-on double teams at him. 

That approach generated plenty of Cleveland turnovers which the Sixers converted into easy fast-break offense. Barlow slammed in an unguarded dunk after a Paul George steal. On the next play, a Barlow steal led to a VJ Edgecombe corner three-pointer. 

The Cavs committed the night’s first seven turnovers and the Sixers scored the first 16 points off turnovers. Maxey picked up four steals in the first half and Barlow had three. 

Mitchell ended the game with 13 points on 4-for-13 shooting, 12 assists, six turnovers and nine rebounds. 

Embiid scoring with variety 

Embiid posted 13 points in the first quarter on 4-for-7 shooting and helped the Sixers builld a lead late in the period. 

Cleveland closed the first on a 6-0 run, but the Sixers were much better to begin the second. Adem Bona threw down a dunk and then swatted a Tyson layup attempt in crowd-pleasing fashion. Bona’s lay-in put the Sixers up 43-33. 

A sloppy stretch from the Sixers meant they didn’t maintain that lead for long. However, they managed to enter halftime with a seven-point edge thanks to two Quentin Grimes threes in the final 46 seconds of the second quarter.

Embiid hit two mid-range jumpers to open the scoring in the second half. He had a diverse offensive mix Friday, which has often been the case during his strong run over the last month or so. That included smooth jump shooting off of pick-and-rolls and post-ups, physical play inside and a 11-for-12 outing at the foul line. 

Sixers let it slip

On top of all his scoring, Tyson played dogged defense against Maxey. The Sixers’ star guard went 14 for 39 (35.9 percent) from the floor in the mini-series.

Notably, Maxey, Edgecombe and Grimes were the only guards in the Sixers’ rotation.

Jared McCain stayed on the sideline. The 21-year-old had played in every game since Nov. 17, although his minutes had been sparse recently. Sixers head coach Nick Nurse used Grimes, Kelly Oubre Jr., Bona, Jabari Walker and Trendon Watford off the bench.

Maxey drilled a three with 9.5 seconds in the third quarter to give the Sixers a 91-84 lead. The team started the fourth well without Maxey and Embiid, too. A George mid-range bucket put the Sixers up 11 points.

They couldn’t hold off Cleveland until Embiid’s return. The Sixers missed several layups and the Cavs summoned an offensive flurry. De’Andre Hunter’s three evened the game at 102-all and Embiid re-entered with 5:40 to go in the fourth.

The Sixers immediately made a 7-0 run, but the contest was far from over.

Their offense stalled and Tyson continued his flame-throwing night. He sandwiched two long-range jumpers between a huge Hunter dunk on Embiid and the Cavs suddenly held a 112-111 edge with a little under two minutes left.

After Mobley split a pair of late free throws, Maxey hit a game-tying floater with 8.1 seconds on the clock. He failed to win it from well beyond the arc next time down.