By Brandon Apter, Sports Talk Philly editor 
The Philadelphia 76ers (9-24) led by as many as 26 tonight, but escaped with a narrow 93-91 victory at home against the Minnesota Timberwolves (11-24). The Sixers let the 'Wolves go on a 21-5 run in the third and it seemed as if they could not hit a shot in the fourth, allowing the game to become tied late in the final seconds. Robert Covington, struggling offensively all night, hit the game-winner on an in bounds play with 1.6 seconds to go, securing the Sixers' ninth win of the year, something that took until March 11 last season.
Robert Covington shot 4-14 on the night, including 1-9 from beyond the arc, but he still managed to come up big when it mattered most. RoCo was booed for the majority of the game after each miss, but he managed to finish with a double double, 13 points and 10 boards. Joel Embiid continued to impress during his rookie season tonight. After being named Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month for December earlier in the day, the 7-foot-2 center scored 25 points to go along with eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks. He had some costly turnovers down the stretch, but luckily he was bailed out by Robert Covington in the end. Ersan Ilyasova contributed with a strong 19 points on 7-for-14 shooting. Him and Embiid has some nice moments during their pairing on the court.
For Minnesota, Zach LaVine was non-existent for the most part in the first half, but managed to finish with a game-high 28-points as he was a large part of Minnesota's third quarter run that included 17 straight. At the half, Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins were shooting just 3-12 combined for 12 points. Towns turned things around in the second half, finishing with 23 points, 15 rebounds, five assists and two blocks, including one of Joel Embiid down the stretch that led to the game tying basket. Andrew Wiggins ended the night with eight points on 2-for-15 shooting.
The Sixers got out to a 29-16 lead in the first quarter, thanks in large part to a big four minutes from Nerlens Noel. The reserve center out of Kentucky scored eight points in four minutes backing up Joel Embiid. The pair of Embiid and Noel started the second quarter together and outscored the T'Wolves 7-6 with all points coming from Embiid during their time on the court together. Embiid commented on it during a halftime interview with Molly Sullivan.
"I thought we played great. I know that I have someone behind me if I made a mistake that was going to protect the rim."
Meanwhile, Jahlil Okafor got his first taste of action a little over midway through the second to some boo's from the crowd. The second-year big man out of Duke looked a bit more aggressive on the defensive end and the offensive glass, tipping in a Luwawu-Cabarrot miss for his first points of the evening. Philadelphia went into the half up 15, 57-42. Joel Embiid came alive in the second quarter, scoring 12 of his 16 first half points in the period.
The Sixers controlled the first 24 minutes, shutting down the Timberwolves post game by holding them to just 12 points in the paint. They average around 43 per game. Philadelphia led in points in the paint 32-12, rebounds 28-21, assists 11-7, steals 6-2 and forced nine Minnesota turnovers to their three. The Sixers scored 12 points off the nine turnovers and shot 43.1 percent overall at the half while the Wolves shot just 37.8 percent.
Philadelphia started the second half right where they left off, putting together a 11-0 run that included five from Joel Embiid to increase his point total to 21. Ersan Ilyasova was the other contributor to the run, scoring eight points in just about four minutes of playing time to open up the second half, hitting all three of his shots, including two three's to help the Sixers go up 70-49 with just under eight minutes to play in the quarter. Meanwhile, Zach LaVine scored eight straight for Minnesota as part of a 14-2 run to respond to the Sixers spurt out of the locker rooms, cutting the lead to 70-54. The Timberwolves kept going, scoring 17 straight to get the once 26-point deficit down to 11, 70-59, with under five minutes to play in the third and Joel Embiid still on the bench. Philadelphia escaped the third with an 11-point lead, 79-68, with Minnesota outscoring them 26-22 in the quarter.
In the fourth, Minnesota started things off on an 8-3 run, cutting the Sixer advantage to six, 82-76, with just under six minutes to go in the game. Philadelphia, struggling with turnovers and offense in the second half, went over six minutes without a field goal until Joel Embiid put them ahead 88-80 with 4:25 to play. They allowed the Wolves to claw back to within one, 89-88, with a minute to go after a pair of costly Embiid turnovers. TJ McConnell hit a clutch shot, crossing over Karl-Anthony Towns with 41.5 seconds to play, putting Philadelphia up three.
Joel Embiid had the ball with under 10 seconds to go, but was blocked down low by Towns as Minnesota took over with 6.5 seconds to play down three. Ricky Rubio hit a wide open three with 1.6 to play, tying the game at 91. Brett Brown called a great play out of the timeout, as Dario Saric found Robert Covington cutting to the basket on the in bounds play for the layup to go ahead 93-91 and win the game.
ARE. YOU. KIDDING. ME??! pic.twitter.com/qmvENf8xVC
— Philadelphia 76ers (@Sixers) January 4, 2017
For a guy who was booed all night, Covington didn't let that get into his head.
"The fans can boo all they want, I'm just gonna keep playing" – Robert Covington
Despite being outscored 49-36 in the second half, the Sixers were able to grab their second straight win.
Up Next:
The Sixers have two days off before hitting the road to Boston on Friday for a matchup with the Celtics at 7:30 p.m.
