Suns survive heave from Embiid in win over 76ers
>> Joel Embiid grabbed a two-handed rebound, turned and heaved an 85-foot, right-handed strike with a throw ripped from Bryce Harper’s playbook that banked off the glass and rattled off the front and back of the rim and out.
The Sixers center was flat on his back in disbelief over the nearmake that would have sent the game to overtime.
“It would have made for a long flight, long night and not a lot of sleep,” Suns coach Monty Williams said.
Rest easy, Phoenix.
Chris Paul, Devin Booker, Mikal Bridges and the Suns walked off winners on the road for the second time this week against one of the top teams in the East. Paul scored 28 points, Booker had 19 and Bridges 18 to lead the Suns to a 116-113 victory over the Sixers on Wednesday night.
Embiid had 38 points and 17 rebounds and one oh-so close shot.
‘When I threw it, it looked good,” Embiid said.
Paul, a 93% free-throw shooter, missed one from the line that would have sealed the win instead of giving Embiid a glimmer of highlight-reel hope.
“If you’re up three, I always want to make the free throw to go up four,” Paul said. “That shot was in-and-out. I ain’t never seen anything like it.”
Neither had the rest of the Suns. “That was a heck of a display of a throw right there,” Suns forward Cameron Johnson said.
Said Bridges: “I don’t know how I would have reacted. That was crazy.”
The Suns improved their NBAbest road record to 19-7 and are second overall at 42-16 — 1 ½ games behind Utah for the league lead.
Paul hit five 3s and Bridges, a former Villanova standout, continued to haunt the Sixers three years after an ill-fated draft-night deal. The Sixers selected Bridges
with the 10th overall pick in 2018 — a feel-good story because of the Nova connection and his mother worked for the 76ers’ parent company. Zhaire played only 13 NBA games and is out of the league while Bridges turned into a breakout star for the blossoming Suns.
The Sixers again played without
starters Ben Simmons (unspecified illness) and Tobias Harris (right knee). Simmons missed his second straight game and Harris his third, the Sixers certainly secure enough in playoff spot to the point they don’t have to rush either one back. Seth Curry also missed the game with a left hip flexor.