By Brandon Apter, Sports Talk Philly editor
The Philadelphia 76ers (10-25) matched their win total from a season ago with a 105-95 win over the Brooklyn Nets (8-28) this afternoon. The Sixers rebounded from a sloppy first half that saw them tailing by 11 to take their first lead of the game in the third quarter, thanks to a 13-0 run out of the half. Philadelphia put together an 11-0 spurt late in the fourth to put the game out of reach. The Sixers outscored Brooklyn 59-38 in the second half.
Dario Saric had a strong game off the bench, finishing with 18 points and five rebounds, his 17th double digit performance of his rookie season. Joel Embiid found himself in foul trouble, picking up his fourth personal in the third quarter, but Nerlens Noel filled in nicely for the second straight game. Despite sitting for a majority of the third, Embiid finished with 20 points on 8-for-14 shooting. He also added five rebounds, four assists and two blocks.
Noel, in the meantime, played 24 minutes and scored eight while grabbing four boards and tallying three steals. Robert Covington played a big part in the teams' late fourth quarter run and defensively overall. RoCo notched a double-double with 15 points and 11 boards but also had five steals. Nik Stauskas started at shooting guard and put together a solid performance with 15 points. Jahlil Okafor was a DNP-Coach's Decision for the second consecutive game.
On the Nets end, Brook Lopez led all scorers with a game-high 26 points. Reserve center Justin Hamilton contributed with 16 off the bench while Bojan Bogdanovic finished with 12 after scoring 44 against the Sixers last season in Brooklyn.
Looking back at the game itself, the first half was one to forget for the Sixers. Although they managed to keep things close in the final minutes of the second quarter, Brooklyn went on a 9-0 run to close out the half with a 57-46 lead. Philadelphia shot just 32.7 percent in the first 24 minutes of game time and 14.3 percent from deep.
The third quarter was a different story though, as the Sixers erupted to score the first 13 points of the period to take their first lead of the game. Brooklyn managed to get a clutch three from Bojan Bogdanovic to put them back up four, but the Sixers responded with a 15-2 spurt, capped off by a Stauskas triple to give the Sixers a nine-point lead, 74-65. The Nets scored the final five points of the quarter to keep things close as the Sixers took a 78-73 advantage into the final quarter.
Joel Embiid came back in the fourth quarter and scored the first four for the Sixers to keep them ahead, 82-73. Brooklyn put together a 9-0 push though, tying the game up at 82 a piece with just under nine minutes to play in the game. With the Sixers leading 89-87 with about five minutes to play, Dario Saric hit an open trip to increase the advantage to five, 92-87. Robert Covington put Philadelphia up by 11 with an emphatic slam followed by a three to cap an 11-0 run with just under three minutes to play and the Sixers ahead 101-89. They wouldn't look back, winning the game by 10, 105-95.
Up Next:
The Sixers have two days off before hosting the Knicks on Wednesday night in Philadelphia for the first time this season.