By Josh Liddick, Sports Talk Philly Staff
The Cleveland Cavaliers visited Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon for an Eastern Conference matchup. The Sixers, coming off of of two straight home losses to Memphis and Chicago, looked to leave off where they started against the defending champs just a couple weeks ago.
The Sixers handled the Cavs early on, leading the entire first half, after Cleveland missed their first 14 shot attempts, while the Sixers took advantage.
Joel Embiid was the player that was hyped the most before Saturday's matchup, after missing the Chicago game due to playing over minute against the Grizzlies just a game before. In order for the Sixers to try to defeat the Cavs, Embiid was going to have to play and contribute large.
Embiid played 21 crucial minutes during the contest, with 22 points and nine rebounds. He was 8-of-18 from the field, and struggled to get pressure in the post with the Cleveland defense a couple of times, which caused a few easy misses.
The Sixers got exceptional minutes from Dario Saric and Jahlil Okafor off the bench for 10 and 14 points, respectively.
From the starting five, besides Embiid, Gerald Henderson and Sergio Rodriguez also led the team in points with 13 and 12 points.
In the fourth quarter, the Cavs took over, after a stellar second half shooting the ball. They outscored the Sixers 35 to 27 in the fourth quarter, and despite a strong last minute of the game from the Sixers, including a four-point play from Ersan Ilyasova, and a last second three from Embiid, the Cavs were too much to handle and LeBron James led Cleveland to their fourth straight victory, winning 112-108.
The Cavaliers were led by Kyrie Irving with 39 points, LeBron had 26 points, and Kevin Love added 25.
The Sixers dropped their third straight game, and fall to 4-13 on the year. Despite their record, the Sixers are showing that they can fight in any given situation, and are trying to prove that they're a better team than their record indicates.
Philadelphia will travel up north to Toronto tomorrow night to take on the Raptors, and then return to the Center on Wednesday for another four game home-stand starting with the Sacramento Kings.
