PHILADELPHIA — 76ers center Joel Embiid returned to game action for the first time in three weeks Sunday night against the Atlanta Hawks as he, Paul George and Tyrese Maxey played together for the first time this season.
Yet the fact those details became a footnote spoke to the strangeness of the game, won 142-134 by the Hawks in double overtime.
It was a game from which both teams walked away saying they genuinely had the contest won at different points, only to let it get away, and one that featured a possibly unprecedented officiating miscue, with an “accidental” review causing chaos at the end of the first OT period.
When it ended, Embiid, George and rookie VJ Edgecombe — who returned after missing three games with a calf issue — all were rooted to the bench, having hit minutes limits, while Jalen Johnson (41 points, 14 rebounds, 7 assists) outlasted Maxey (44 points, 7 rebounds, 9 assists in 52 minutes) to eke out the win.
“I think it was more about perseverance than it was poise,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said, “but I think when we didn’t have poise, or we made mistakes, we were able to move forward and made enough plays when it counted and we put ourselves in a position [to win] — as did they.
“We’re just happy it went our way.”
Editor’s Picks
2 Related
It would’ve been impossible to predict the ensuing craziness when Atlanta led by eight points with less than a minute to go in regulation. But sandwiched around a split pair of free throws by both Dyson Daniels and Johnson, the 76ers scored 10 points in 34 seconds — on a Quentin Grimes triple; an Embiid tip-in; a Dominick Barlow and-1 layup; and, after Barlow missed the free throw, an offensive rebound that led to a game-tying Maxey 3 with 8.8 seconds left.
“It’s not over until it’s over,” said George, who had 16 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists in 28 minutes. “We kind of just stayed in the fight.”
That all paled in comparison to the wackiness that took place in the closing seconds of the first overtime. After Johnson missed a game-tying layup with 7.7 seconds left, Maxey — a 86.8% career foul shooter — went to the line with a chance to ice the game with two makes. Instead, he missed both.
“I thought I was going to make them, and we’ll figure it out after that,” a despondent Maxey said after the game. “But, it’s life.”
Then came the strangest sequence of the night.
Johnson drove to the basket on the next possession and was fouled by Barlow as his layup rolled off the rim with 0.3 seconds remaining. After the foul was committed, 76ers coach Nick Nurse called timeout. He would say later that, with two timeouts remaining, he was taking one to ice Johnson, and then would take another if he made both to draw up a play to potentially win the game.
Crew chief James Capers, however, thought Nurse had challenged the call, and conducted a review. Capers initially said Philadelphia had lost the challenge and there was actually 1.1 left on the clock. Only then, after Nurse informed the officials he hadn’t, in fact, called for a challenge, it was rescinded and the time went back to 0.3 seconds.
“There was a miscommunication amongst the officials, and we thought when [Nurse] called the timeout that he wanted to challenge the play,” Capers said in a pool report. “Because we did not have a legal challenge, we therefore could not go by what we saw on the challenge. Prior to that, the foul was committed with .3 on the clock.”
After the lengthy delay, Johnson hit both free throws to send the game into a second overtime.
At that point, Embiid had to leave the game, having already played a season-high 30 minutes, while Edgecombe was done for the night before the end of regulation, and George in the middle of the first overtime.
“That was just kind of about as much as they had, to be honest,” Nurse said.
Embiid — who missed the previous nine games with right knee soreness, the other knee from the one that has bothered him for the better part of two years — hit his first jumper and finished with 18 points on 6-for-14 shooting.
More importantly, he said his knee felt good afterward.
“I thought the first half was pretty good,” Embiid said. “When it’s been almost a month and you’ve only had about two court sessions, going up and down, it’s going to be tough.
“I’m just happy that I got a chance to play the game of basketball, build on it and go from there. … I don’t really judge myself based on shots falling. Tonight is all about how I moved laterally, jumping and all that stuff. Tonight was a good step towards that.”
Edgecombe said he felt good as well, finishing with seven points, two rebounds and two assists in 21 minutes. Andre Drummond, meanwhile, played six first-half minutes before being shut down with soreness in his right knee. It was a surprise he was available at all following a hard fall Friday night at Brooklyn that forced him to exit with a hyperextended knee.
For Atlanta, Kristaps Porzingis missed his ninth game of the season, and sixth in Atlanta’s last nine games overall, with an illness. Porzingis, who is still dealing with the after effects of the health issues that compromised the end of last season for him with the Boston Celtics, is unlikely to play Monday at Detroit, either.
