The Sixers rode out ample chaos Thursday night to earn a dramatic overtime win.
They earned a 128-122 OT victory over the Rockets at Xfinity Mobile Arena. The Sixers now sit at 24-19, Houston at 26-16.
Tyrese Maxey posted 36 points and 10 assists. Joel Embiid had a triple-double with 32 points, a season-best 15 rebounds and 10 assists in a season-high 46 minutes. Kelly Oubre Jr. scored 26 points.
Rockets superstar Kevin Durant led Houston with 36 points.
The Sixers had a full-strength team Thursday. The Rockets were down Fred VanVleet, Steven Adams and Aaron Holiday.
The Sixers will conclude their six-game homestand Saturday afternoon vs. the Knicks. Here are observations on their overtime win Thursday:
Strong starting run for Oubre
Paul George returned after missing the last two games. Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said pregame that the 35-year-old forward had recently experienced soreness in his left knee.
He started alongside Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Oubre and Embiid. Oubre was strong again in his third consecutive start and looks like he’ll stay in that role for the foreseeable future. He scored eight of the Sixers’ first 12 points, including an and-one leaner and a corner three-pointer.
Embiid disagreed with a couple of early no-calls when he assumed he’d drawn enough contact to warrant a whistle. The Sixers’ star big man didn’t score until Oubre drove and dished to him for a dunk with 6:19 left in the first quarter.
Coming off of a 7-for-25 shooting night in the Sixers’ loss Tuesday to the Suns, Maxey missed his first four field goals. After Maxey came up empty on a finger roll he’s accustomed to making, Jabari Smith Jr. drilled a three to give Houston a 19-12 lead. Maxey finally saw the ball go through the hole late in the first quarter, converting a fast-break three and a driving layup.
Both Maxey and Oubre played the whole first quarter. Oubre’s three with 20.5 seconds to go in the period cut the Sixers’ deficit to 34-32.
The 30-year-old wing has been excellent lately beyond the arc. Over his last six games, Oubre’s gone 16 for 30 from three-point range (53.3 percent). He’s shot confidently in the rhythm of the Sixers’ offense without leaning too much on his jumper or losing his aggression as a driver.
Embiid and Durant on their games
Embiid and George checked back in to begin the second quarter. However, George’s stint was short-lived. He picked up his third foul just 59 seconds into the second period when he got called for a push-off on Dorian Finney-Smith as he tried to create space off the dribble late in the shot clock.
Trendon Watford replaced George and did a decent job in the second quarter. He connected with Quentin Grimes on a backdoor cut and fed him for an and-one slam that put the Sixers up 44-39.
Embiid and Durant each settled into the dominant scoring grooves they’ve shown on many occasions. Embiid fared well against a variety of defenders that included star Rockets center Alperen Sengun. He wore out a path to the foul line, taking nine free throws in the first half. The seven-time All-Star’s performance Thursday was his third straight 30-point game and seventh 30-point outing of the season.
Maxey also dealt with plenty of good, physical defenders from the switch-heavy Rockets, among them Josh Okogie, Amen Thompson and Tari Eason.
He found success in transition late in the second quarter, highlighted by a big left-handed dunk on Smith, and everything else in his game seemed to click from there. Maxey added one more slam off of his own steal with 2.1 seconds left in the second and the Sixers went to halftime with a 68-61 lead.
Sixers pull out a wild one
Oubre was whistled for his third foul 14 seconds into the second half. Edgecombe got his fourth personal with 8:28 left in the third quarter.
The Sixers worked around that mounting foul trouble and maintained their lead. Oubre guarded scrappily and extended the Sixers’ advantage to 88-79 when he sunk a wide-open three before Houston’s defense could set up.
With Embiid sitting and Adem Bona in, the Sixers struggled to close out the third quarter. A Finney-Smith three knotted the game at 88-all, though George made a buzzer-beating mid-range jumper to send the Sixers into the fourth with a two-point edge. The Sixers were outscored by 15 points in Bona’s seven minutes.
The Rockets burned the Sixers with a 12-0 run early in the fourth quarter capped by a Smith dunk. The Sixers paid several times for leaving second-year Rockets sharpshooter Reed Sheppard open for clean three-point looks. Sheppard nailed a corner three to put the Rockets up nine points.
The Sixers battled back and were fueled largely by their defense. Embiid stripped the ball from Smith, which led to a goaltended Maxey layup that sliced the Rockets’ lead to 110-108.
Durant hit a clutch push shot on Maxey, but the Sixers’ All-Star guard then tied the game at 115 apiece when he made a fast-break layup with 40.1 seconds left. Durant followed by missing a jumper over Oubre.
The final moments of regulation were strange and controversial. Maxey drove into the paint and had his layup blocked, although replays appeared to show a goaltend. The officials didn’t call it and seemed to grant Rockets head coach Ime Udoka a timeout despite no one controlling possession. They wound up doing a jump ball instead. The Sixers won it but didn’t have enough time left to get a shot.
George provided multiple important plays in overtime.
He scored the Sixers’ first points of the extra session on a long-range jumper and swatted Sengun emphatically after the big man tried several pump fakes inside. George’s block led to an Oubre fast-break layup that gave the Sixers a 124-120 lead.
They got the job done without any extra drama from that point, emerging with a high-quality, hard-working victory.