Philadelphia rallies to beat Miami
>> Philadelphia opened a big lead, wasted it all, opened another big lead, wasted that one as well, then found itself in trouble midway through the fourth quarter.
No problem. The 76ers had one last run in them — and it was the only one that mattered.
Tyrese Maxey scored 37 points, Joel Embiid added 29 and the 76ers topped the Miami Heat 109-105 on Thursday night to tighten the already-muddled race in the Eastern Conference for the last guaranteed playoff spot.
“It was a super-competitive game,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said. “Always is. I think it's always an intense, physical, lots-of-energy-expended by everybody that's out there. And it was really going back and forth. Big run by us, big run
by them, really back and forth.”
That's an understatement. A 15-3 run by Philly ended it, on a night that was really nothing but wild runs by either side.
• The 76ers started the game on a 17-2 spurt.
• Miami took the lead
later in the first half after a 25-6 run.
• The 76ers came right back with a 20-1 burst.
• The Heat went on a 17-0 run midway through the second half, and led by eight with 6:28 left.
“We're right next to each other in the standings so that's what games are going to be like — back and forth, back and forth, back and forth,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We'll go on a run, they'll go on a run, it just keeps on going that way and they made the final run.”
MAVERICKS 109, HAWKS 95 >> Luka Doncic finished with 25 points after a rare scoreless first quarter and Dallas stayed alone in fifth place in the Western Conference with a victory over Atlanta.
Kyrie Irving scored 26 points and Doncic had 12 rebounds and eight assists as the Mavericks opened a rare stretch of three home games in four days with their 12th victory in 14 games.
The juggled home slate came after a scheduled game at Golden State in January was postponed following the death of Warriors assistant coach Dejan Milojevic.