Tyrese Maxey, Buddy Hield help Sixers hold off Cavaliers for much-needed victory

Tyrese Maxey had the mismatch on big man Evan Mobley with the clock dwindling at the top of the key. Yet when a second defender drifted toward the 76ers’ All-Star point guard, Maxey dished to his left to teammate Buddy Hield for the three-pointer that gave their team the eight-point cushion they needed with 31.3 seconds to play.

Just barely.

That long ball by the Sixers’ primary trade-deadline acquisition — plus four clutch free throws as part of a 15-point final period from Maxey — helped the Sixers survive a late flurry by the Cavaliers and win 104-97 on Friday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

“Buddy hit a big catch-and-shoot 3 and put it away ... ish,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said after the game.

That three-pointer by Hield gave the Sixers a 100-92 advantage in the final minute. But then the Cavaliers’ Darius Garland drew a foul beyond the arc and made all three free-throw attempts, before a turnover by the Sixers’ Tobias Harris put the ball in Max Strus’ hands for a layup that suddenly made it a three-point game with 24.1 seconds remaining.

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Maxey, though, sank all four foul-shot attempts down the stretch, and Garland missed a three-pointer with Cleveland trailing by five with 17.2 seconds left.

These days, the Sixers will take a frenetic victory. They entered Friday with 10 losses in their past 13 games — though one of those three victories was a 123-121 thrilling triumph in Cleveland on Feb. 12. Friday’s matchup became the third consecutive down-to-the-wire meeting between these teams this season, joining an overtime Cavaliers win in Philly in late November.

“You could tell right from the start there was a whole lot more pop,” Nurse said. “Physicality. Just chasing the ball on the glass. Better contesting. Better sharing. All that stuff.”

Maxey finished with 24 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. But after self-proclaimed “stinky” first three quarters, he went 5-of-9 from the floor in the final period. That included a three-pointer that put the Sixers up, 95-89, with less than three minutes to play and a tough jumper in traffic to make the score 97-92 with 1:25 to go.

The Sixers initially built a cushion with an 11-0 third-quarter run — sparked by back-to-back three-pointers by Harris (15 points, nine rebounds, four assists) and Hield (13 points, five rebounds) — to take a 68-57 lead about midway through the period. But the Cavaliers answered with a 10-2 surge, setting up a competitive final frame.

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The Sixers took advantage of a Cavaliers team playing without All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell (illness). Yet the home team also was not at full strength, playing without newly signed veteran guard Kyle Lowry (return to competition conditioning) and starting forward Nico Batum (hamstring injury recovery) did not enter until he was tasked delivering the Sixers’ final inbounds pass.

The Sixers also improved to 7-15 while playing without reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Joel Embiid, who continues to recover from knee surgery.

Cameron Payne largely thrived in Lowry’s place, scoring 13 of his 16 bench points in the first half on 5-of-7 shooting, including 3-of-4 from long range. Fellow guard De’Anthony Melton (seven points) also returned from a spine issue that had kept him out for much of the past seven weeks.

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The Sixers led, 53-50, at halftime, boosted by a 28-19 rebounding edge over a Cleveland team that entered Friday ranked seventh in the NBA in that category. That helped generate 10 second-chance points and eight more shot attempts before the break.

The Sixers will next play an intriguing Sunday-afternoon game against the Milwaukee Bucks and former coach Doc Rivers, before heading to Boston to take on the Eastern Conference-leading Celtics on Tuesday.

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