Tyrese Maxey #0 of the Philadelphia 76ers reacts against the Brooklyn Nets during the second half of Game Three of the Eastern Conference First Round Playoffs at Barclays Center on April 20, 2023 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Sarah Stier/Getty Images/AFP
The Philadelphia 76ers beat Brooklyn 102-97 on Thursday in a rugged clash that featured two ejections and a controversial kick from Joel Embiid and moved the Sixers one win away from a sweep of their NBA first-round playoff series.
The 76ers, down by five with 2:15 remaining at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, surged home to take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference series, the Nets well aware that no NBA team has come back from 3-0 down to win a series.
Embiid, Philadelphia’s MVP candidate, scored just 14 points but pulled down 10 rebounds and produced a crucial block with eight seconds remaining and Philadelphia up by two.
Plenty of pundits will argue he should have been out of the game by then, but Embiid wasn’t ejected when he aimed a kick from the floor at Nic Claxton’s groin as the Nets player stepped over him in the first quarter.
Sixers star James Harden was tossed late in the third quarter after piling his shoulder into Royce O’Neale’s body on a drive to the basket.
And Brooklyn’s Claxton was ejected early in the fourth when he picked up a second technical foul for taunting Embiid.
“We stayed together,” Embiid said of the key to the hard-fought victory. “We kept playing through everything that was going on.”
Tyrese Maxey keyed the late surge, scoring 10 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter.
His step-back three-pointer with 44.7 seconds left gave the Sixers a 99-96 lead.
Spencer Dinwiddie cut the deficit by one with a free throw and looked headed for a game-tying layup when Embiid soared up to reject the shot and the Sixers held on.
Mikal Bridges led the Nets with 26 points and Dinwiddie added 20, but Brooklyn are in danger of being swept for the second straight season.
Embiid, who went to the locker room briefly in the first quarter and could be seen limping later in the game said that despite their commanding lead the Sixers need to be better in Saturday’s game four.
“Tonight was probably our worst night,” he said. “I wasn’t good at all, so I’m going to be better.”
In other games Thursday, the defending champion Golden State Warriors tried to claw out of a 2-0 hole when they hosted the Sacramento Kings.
The Warriors were without star Draymond Green, who was suspended one game after stamping on Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis in game two.
The Los Angeles Clippers were without injured Kawhi Leonard as they hosted the Phoenix Suns in game three of their Western Conference series. The teams split the first two games in Phoenix.
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