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Tim BontempsESPN
PHILADELPHIA — Shortly after his Philadelphia 76ers’ 133-122 overtime win over the Los Angeles Lakers, coach Doc Rivers sat down in his chair before the press conference to answer questions about how his night was going. I summarized how it unfolded.
“I was planning on starting about 15 minutes ago,” Rivers said with a smile.
Almost everyone inside the Wells Fargo Center did on Friday night. Joel Embiid Splitting a pair of free throws to go 119-110 in 34.8 seconds to go into regulation.
But from there on, a string of mistakes saw the Lakers not only get back into the game, but a chance to win in regulation.
The Sixers had three turnovers in 21.6 seconds and split two free throws to give life to their opponents.
When asked what was going through his mind during Philadelphia’s fourth-quarter collapse, Embiid, who scored 38 points and rebounded 12 in 46 minutes, said, “Honestly, what the hell was going on?” “I’m just trying to understand why I should not be in that position. But I’m glad I got another chance, so I ended up working overtime.”
While Philadelphia did its part to give Los Angeles a chance, the Lakers did a lot to help their cause. Patrick Beverleya pair of free throws from Anthony Davis 3 pointers from Austin Reeves Pull within 120-117 with 10.5 seconds remaining.
At that point, Reeves was fouled Matisse Cybull A 3-pointer with 9.2 seconds remaining sent him to the free-throw line for the second year and had a chance to attract a score. However, Reeves missed his third free throw after making his two free throws in his first.In the ensuing ball scrum, he was touched last lebron james — Giving Philadelphia possession with 5.5 seconds left and a chance to finally get the ball inbounds.
Instead, Tobias Harris After having nowhere to go with the ball, he lofted a pass in the air toward Embiid, but it only bounced off Embiid’s face.
The ball went into Davis’ hands and Davis performed a give and go Russell Westbrook before Harris fouled him with 3.7 seconds remaining.
But with a chance to put the Lakers up by one and Philadelphia with no timeouts left, they were on the verge of securing a truly unlikely victory, but Davis missed his second free throw, giving the 76ers a new run. It came to life and instead sent the game into overtime.
“It definitely hurts,” said Davis, who scored 31 points (25 of them after halftime). 12 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks in 36 minutes.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself to make free throws, especially in those situations. I’m still shocked that I missed it.”
As dramatic as the end-game sequence was, it made the overtime pretty defiant. They knew their direction and outscored Los Angeles 13-2 in the extra session. team in overtime (3-for-4, plus his perfect 7-for-7 from the free-throw line).
“Honestly, it’s probably just a disappointment that I blew it [lead] When asked how he and his teammates got on track, Harris said.
“We knew we had to do everything we could to win from here.”
A bizarre collapse in the final moments overshadowed what the game of the guard’s career was Deanthony Meltonscored 33 points on 11-for-16 shooting and had 7 steals, including 12-for-8 on 3-pointers.
“Honestly, my teammates were just spotting me,” Melton said. “Some of those paths are the way they went through, I mean, I’m sure they didn’t think they’d go through. But they kept going through, they kept finding me, they kept me open. I kept shooting with confidence.”
The 76ers managed to pull it off after a dismal performance in the final minutes of Monday’s loss to the Rockets in Houston, combined with their weaknesses late in the game, but Rivers said those issues were. He said moving forward would solve the problem.
“All guards, we all have to come on the ball,” Rivers said. I don’t get it. I’ll fix it.”
ESPN’s Dave McMenamin contributed to this report.
