Sixers’ fourth-quarter rally falls short in 90-88 loss to Milwaukee Bucks in home opener

James Harden willed the Sixers back in the final quarter. P.J. Tucker broke the tie with less than a minute to play.

But Harden could not cap his second consecutive exceptional outing with a game-winner in the 76ers’ home opener.

Harden’s baseline leaner bounced off the rim with four seconds to play, preserving the Milwaukee Bucks’ 90-88 victory Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center in a matchup of teams expected to finish near the top of the Eastern Conference standings.

“I told them no moral victories,” coach Doc Rivers said. “You played two great teams [including a loss at the Celtics in the opener]. You knew from the day they released the schedule that they were coming. And we have to expect to win these games, even while we’re a work in progress.

“ ... Can’t get them back now. You have to move on and get to the next game.”

Harden’s misfire — which he called a “good look [but] could have been better” because he believes he could have put on a second move — occurred after an open Wes Matthews three-pointer that gave the Bucks an 89-88 lead with 23.8 seconds to play. That was the final of several open perimeter looks the Sixers allowed all night.

“It was a mental mistake,” said Sixers forward Tobias Harris, who left Matthews. “ … That’s on me.”

Added Rivers: “That’s just discipline. You got a two-point lead. You can’t get sucked in. They’ve got to make a tough two, and we live with that.”

The Bucks (1-0) led by as many as 12 points early in the fourth quarter, before the Sixers (0-2) roared back with a 17-5 run anchored by Harden and a small-ball lineup to set up the tense final minutes. Harden’s pass to Danuel House Jr. for an alley-oop finish cut the Bucks’ lead to 80-78, before his layup off a Milwaukee turnover tied the game with less than seven minutes to play.

“We were just active,” Harden said of that lineup. “Our defensive intensity picked up, we got stops and that gave us opportunities in transition.”

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Harden later tied the game at 84 with a jumper with about three minutes to play, before another bucket gave the Sixers a two-point lead about a minute later. After Grayson Allen answered with a finish inside, Tucker connected on both free throws.

Harden scored 22 of his 31 points Thursday during that ultra-aggressive second half featuring shot-making and playmaking from all over the floor, including an uncharacteristic bevy of mid-range jumpers. He also added nine assists and eight rebounds. That followed a 35-point performance — his highest point total as a Sixer — during Tuesday’s season-opening loss at Boston.

Those are signs that, in his Harden’s words, “I can move now” following a hamstring injury that hampered him for parts of two seasons.

The game’s two MVP contenders also totaled double-doubles, though Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo was more efficient than Sixers counterpart Joel Embiid.

Antetokoumpo, who won the NBA’s most prestigious individual award in 2019 and 2020, finished with 21 points on 9-of-16 shooting, 13 rebounds, and 8 assists. Embiid, who was the runner-up for the award the past two seasons, added 15 points, 12 rebounds, and 3 assists but went 6-of-21 from the floor. Fans booed late in the third quarter when Embiid fumbled a pass and missed a jumper to help the Bucks take a 73-63 lead into the final period.

Embiid declined to speak to the media following the game, though Rivers said the All-NBA center “just didn’t have a great game. He’s human.”

This game provided a first glimpse at how the new-look Sixers will guard Antetokoumpo, an explosive and athletic phenom who is particularly dangerous while attacking downhill with the ball in his hands.

Tucker, a veteran who is lauded for his defensive versatility, drew the primary defensive assignment. He mirrored Antetokounmpo’s minutes, trying to keep pace with his former teammate with whom he won an NBA title in 2021.

Rivers called Tucker’s effort on Antetokounmpo “fantastic,” because “usually one man doesn’t guard him, and tonight, for the most part, Tucker did that.”

“He gets an angle, I don’t care how strong you are or big you are, he’s going to win that matchup,” Tucker said. “So I just don’t give him angles. I [studied] him a lot for years, obviously playing with him, I just know him really well.”

Rivers has stressed that the Sixers’ rotation remains fluid, as he experiments with different lineup combinations featuring the newcomers.

The coach immediately changed things up compared to the opener in Boston.

After big man Montrezl Harrell was the first Sixer off the bench against the Celtics (because Embiid picked up two early fouls), he initially was not the backup center. Instead, Paul Reed held that role, spelling Embiid during his traditional break for the first five minutes of the second quarter. Harrell, though, replaced Embiid at the end of the third period before the Sixers went small in the fourth with Tucker at center.

“Tonight, I didn’t like either one, honestly,” Rivers said of Reed and Harrell. “That’s why we went with Tuck, and I thought that lineup changed the game for us.”

Forward Georges Niang was the sixth man Thursday, but only played a sporadic eight minutes because Tucker matched Antetokounmpo’s minutes. House and Melton came in together to replace Harden and Harris late in the first quarter.

Melton provided some scoring punch that the bench lacked in the opener, scoring nine points on 4-of-7 in 19 minutes. That included a seven-point burst in the second quarter, when he hit a three-pointer and a floater and later finished inside. House (four points, three rebounds, two assists in 21 minutes) was the only other reserve to score.

Matisse Thybulle only briefly entered for a defensive possession at the end of the third quarter and regulation, while Shake Milton and Furkan Korkmaz — who were all in the rotation at points of the past few seasons — did not play.