The Philadelphia 76ers picked up an important 118-109 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on the road on Wednesday, but it wasn’t the prettiest win.
Philadelphia committed 20 turnovers, including 17 through the first three quarters, but came away with the win thanks to stars Joel Embiid and James Harden.
While Embiid committed six of those turnovers and Harden had four, both were terrific. Embiid had 36 points and 18 rebounds with four blocks. Harden had 28 points, 12 assists and six rebounds. Philadelphia came away with the win despite issues taking care of the basketball.
“Careless with the basketball,” Harden told reporters. “Just us. They weren’t really pressuring us to where we had to make tough decisions. We’re just kicking the ball off our foot and doing things uncharacteristic. If we can control those things, especially earlier in our game, it’s a much different ballgame earlier, but all in all, we won, we move on.”
Normally, when a team commits as many turnovers as Philadelphia, it doesn’t win. The Cavs attempted 10 more shots and had more looks at the rim, but it didn’t matter on Wednesday.
“Sloppy,” coach Doc Rivers added. “I thought we got stagnant there in the second quarter and in the first quarter, we had seven turnovers and we were shooting like 80% at that point. I just thought we were really sloppy, and on the road, you’re really fortunate to win games like that. They had 10 more shots than us at halftime.”
While the Sixers have to take better care of the basketball, the fact they beat a very good Cavaliers team on the road is impressive.
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