Inspiring basketball, but too little, too late as Sixers come up shy in overtime against the Cavs

The 76ers turned it into a thriller. It just wasn’t enough.

On Tuesday, they played inspired basketball after intermission and fought off an 18-point deficit. However, the Cleveland Cavaliers escaped with a 122-119 overtime victory in the East Group A finale of the NBA’s In-Season Tournament at the Wells Fargo Center.

The Sixers dropped to 10-4 overall and finished 2-2 in pool play. The loss may have hurt their chances to earn a wildcard bid for the IST knockout round. The Cavs (8-6, 2-1), meanwhile, extended their winning streak to four games. They’ll face the Atlanta Hawks on Nov. 28 in their fourth and final pool game.

However, the Indiana Pacers clinched the pool’s quarterfinal berth by defeating the Atlanta Hawks Tuesday. The Pacers (8-5, 3-0) handed the Sixers their other IST loss.

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“Say what you want about the In-Season Tournament,” Tobias Harris said. “But it is for players, we are competitive. That’s more than a regular-season game, those types of games get you ready for playoff basketball, that type of enviroment.

“But we didn’t handle our business tonight. I thought even when we played Indiana, we didn’t handle our business the way we needed to in that In-Season tournament game. ... But yes it is disappointing.”

Darius Garland made a pair of foul shots with 9.5 seconds left in overtime to give Cleveland a three-point margin of victory. The Sixers turned the ball over on the game’s final possession.

“It just shows you that guys fight hard and they play hard,” Joel Embiid said of the Sixers battling back. “We had a chance to come back. We had a chance to win the game. We just didn’t make it happen. And then in overtime, second-chance points killed us a little bit.

“So we got to be better in regards to rebounding. Tonight, they just killed us on the glass.”

The Cavs had four second-chance points in the overtime compared to zero for the Sixers.

Joel Embiid finished with 32 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and five blocks to go with six turnovers. He fouled out with 9.5 seconds remaining in overtime, putting Garland on the line. Tyrese Maxey added 30 points along with six assists and four rebounds. Harris finished with 23 points on 7-for-13 shooting – including making three of his five three-point attempts.

Maxey had a bandage on his hand after the game. The standout point guard said he was ok. He didn’t think the injury would hinder him for Wednesday night’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Target Center.

In an early season of tests, Tuesday’s game was another one for the Sixers.

They faced a lot of four-game lineups through the first 13 games of the season. But this was their first of back-to-back games against teams with towering frontcourts.

Cleveland started 6-foot-11 Jarrett Allen at center, 7-footer Evan Mobley at power forward and 6-foot-10 Dean Wade at small forward. The Cavs also had size coming off the bench in 6-foot-10 Tristan Thompson. As a result, the Sixers expected Cleveland to throw a lot of different players at Embiid.

But the Sixers wanted to limit the Cavs big men’s rebounding. They also played a lot more coverage defense as opposed to switching. Philly was unsuccessful in keeping the Cavs off the boards — and defending them.

Cleveland had a 56-44 rebounding advantage. It also led 68-52 in points in the paint.

“They’re a big team,” Harris said. “I thought when you look at the game and see in the fourth quarter and overtime, there are too many 50-50 basketballs we didn’t get out there. That’s on all of us. And those led to second-chance opportunities that really hurt us.

“We know if we had that basketball it’s a different possession, a different game.”

And it didn’t take long to realize Embiid would have a tough time holding onto the ball.

He had eight points and five rebounds through the first 8 minutes and 6 seconds. But he also had three turnovers. The Cavs turned his third one into a layup by Porter Jr at the other to take a 21-17 advantage.

It also didn’t take long to realize Allen wasn’t intimidated by Embiid’s presence. The former All-Star kept driving the lane in the first half, scoring on Embiid and any Sixer in his way. As a result, he scored 14 of his season-high 26 points before before intermission. He also finished with 13 rebounds.

But he was just one of Cleveland’s six double-digit scorers.

Garland had a season-high 32 points, eight assists and three steals. Max Strus added 20 points while making 5 of 10 three-pointers. Mobley had 18 points and 12 rebounds. Former Sixer Georges Niang added 12 points and seven rebounds as the sixth man. And rookie guard Craig Porter Jr. finished with 12 points and nine assists.

The balanced attack enabled Cleveland to extend its winning streak to four games.

Not bad for a team that basically limped into The Center.

The Cavs were without All-Star Donovan Mitchell (strained right hamstring) along with Caris LeVert (left knee soreness) Isaac Okoro (left knee injury management), Ty Jerome (sprained right ankle) and Ricky Rubio (not with the team).

This game was a homecoming for Niang.

The reserve forward signed a three-year, $25.5 million contract with the Cavs on July 6 after playing the past two seasons with the Sixers. Making 5 of 9 shots — including 2 of 4 three-pointers — he displayed the sharpshooting that made him a fan favorite.

Niang received a huge applause after he subbed in for Mobley, who picked up his second foul, with 2 minutes, 13 seconds into the game.

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“I don’t feel like it was brief,” he said of time in Philly. “It was two years with a lot of memories, a lot of challenging times if you want to say what you guys went through earlier in this year [with James Harden.] But no, it felt like home when I was here. It’s a place that I’ll always enjoy coming back to.

“It was kind of the point of my career where it jolted me into the next part of my career. So I’m super thankful for the organization, the fans, the people, the staff. … This was an amazing place to be.”

Niang still keeps in contact with his former teammates. The Boston native reiterated that Philly felt like home to him.

However, his leaving was about a business.

Niang accepted the lucrative offer from the Cavs just hours after free agency began on June 30.

“Obviously, besides, financially being taken care of, I think the best part was the young talent that’s in this run,” he said. “I think there’s a big window for us to be successful for a while.”