PHILADELPHIA — Joel Embiid played in his first game in three weeks Sunday night, but the star center’s return wasn’t enough as the Philadelphia 76ers lost 142-134 to the Atlanta Hawks in double overtime.
It was the first time this season that Embiid, Paul George and Tyrese Maxey played together, and Maxey shouldered most of the offensive load, finishing with 44 points, 9 assists and 7 rebounds in 52 minutes. But Hawks forward Jalen Johnson answered with 41 points, 14 rebounds and 7 assists to help Atlanta 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.”
It appeared the Hawks were in control, leading by six points with less than 30 seconds left in regulation. Embiid’s tip-in cut the Sixers’ deficit to 114-110 with 22.1 seconds left. After Johnson hit one of two free throws, Dominick Barlow made a layup, and Maxey tied the score with a 3 with 8.8 seconds left.
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“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.”
After Johnson missed a tying layup with 7.7 seconds left in the first overtime, Maxey — a 86.8% career foul shooter — went to the line for two free throws and a chance to give the 76ers a four-point lead with 4.6 seconds left. Instead, he missed both.
“I thought I was going to make them, and we’ll figure it out after that,” Maxey said. “But, it’s life.”
On the next possession, Johnson drove to the basket and was fouled by Barlow with 0.3 seconds remaining. 76ers coach Nick Nurse then called timeout. He said after the game that he took one of his two remaining timeouts to ice Johnson and wanted to use his final one 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 1.1 left on the clock. But Nurse informed the officials he hadn’t called for a challenge, and the clock was reset 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 0.3 on the clock.”
After the lengthy delay, Johnson hit both free throws to send the game into a second overtime.
Embiid, who played a season-high 30 minutes, didn’t play in the second overtime after missing the previous nine games because of right knee soreness. He finished with 18 points on 6-of-14 shooting.
VJ Edgecombe, who missed the previous three games because of a calf issue, scored seven points in 21 minutes and didn’t play in either overtime. George was done before the second overtime.
“That was just kind of about as much as they had, to be honest,” Nurse said.
After the game, Embiid said his knee felt good.
“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 also said he felt good despite missing the previous three games. Andre Drummond, meanwhile, played six first-half minutes before being shut down because of soreness in his right knee. On Friday night, he played 11 minutes and left after suffering a hyperextended knee against the Brooklyn Nets.
Hawks center Kristaps Porzingis sat out because of an illness. Porzingis, who is still dealing with the aftereffects of the health issues he suffered toward the end of last season with the Boston Celtics, is unlikely to play Monday at Detroit.
