The Philadelphia 76ers were in the driver’s seat on Saturday as they looked to close out the Oklahoma City Thunder after a terrific effort. Tyrese Maxey hit two free throws to give Philadelphia a 119-110 lead with 49 seconds left and it looked like that was going to be the final nail in the coffin.
Instead, the young Thunder dug deep and did not go down without a fight. Oklahoma City cut the deficit to two, 123-121, when Chet Holmgren made a pull-up 3. The Sixers needed Joel Embiid to knock down six clutch free throws down the stretch for Philadelphia to win 127-123.
Embiid deserves credit for closing the game for the Sixers, but coach Nick Nurse would rather not have had a win almost slip away down the stretch of a game that was well in hand.
“I would say that I thought we didn’t maybe finish the game quite like we wanted to there,” Nurse told reporters after the win. “Great performance a lot of good stuff, etc., but as everybody’s seeing around the league, there’s some wild finishes in the games. They’re not over at nine points and a minute to go and all those kinds of things. So we got to make sure we’re just locked in and get to 48 a little more solidly, but certainly, give Joel credit for getting open and then knocking them down.”
Nurse is correct about a game not being over. The Thunder pulled off a miraculous comeback win over the Golden State Warriors on Nov. 18 when Holmgren made a ridiculous triple to force overtime, and OKC went on to get the win.
Either way, Embiid made sure the Sixers wouldn’t suffer the same fate as the Warriors.
“Obviously, he put the game away,” Nurse added of Embiid. “Again, give them credit. They just kept finding a way to close that gap down and it was nine with 49 seconds to go. Again, another little bit of missed execution. We fouled them on a 3. They kept going for the quick 2. We were trying to not give up the 3 so they took them and they were quick, but the biggest thing is he made them. The second biggest thing is he broke to get open. He broke to get open to get the ball so that was pretty good.”
The Sixers head home to host the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday.
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