Sixers outlast Indiana Pacers in 129-126 overtime win played without Joel Embiid

James Harden watched as his two free-throw attempts clanged off the rim, a failure to push the 76ers’ one-point lead to a three with less than 30 seconds to play in overtime.

But the star guard overwhelmingly known for his offensive mastery made up for it on the ... defensive end of the floor?

Harden’s two-armed block on Indiana Pacers rookie Bennedict Mathurin at the rim helped save the Sixers’ 129-126 victory Wednesday night at the Wells Fargo Center, capping a wild night when they built a double-digit lead without MVP contender Joel Embiid and then staged their own rally to force extra time and finish off one of the Eastern Conference’s surprise teams.

“I had to get a stop and just tried to make a play on the ball,” Harden said shortly after letting out an “oh, shoosh” with an exhale. “They play extremely fast. … There’s no time off. There’s no relaxed breaks or anything.

“Games like that, you just win the game and you keep pushing forward.”

The Sixers (23-14) took the lead for good when, after a De’Anthony Melton corner three-pointer, Montrezl Harrell collected the ball when Tyrese Maxey’s layup attempt rimmed out and matched his thunderous dunk with a ferocious holler that put the Sixers up 127-124 with less than two minutes to play in the extra frame.

» READ MORE: Sixers center Joel Embiid will miss tonight’s game against the Pacers

A Tyrese Haliburton finger roll cut that cushion to one point, but the Sixers’ defense held the rest of the way. Tobias Harris followed Harden’s block my making a pair of free throws, and Buddy Hield’s desperation three-point heave with less than a second to go went wide.

After letting a 13-point second-half lead slip, the Sixers needed a frenetic close to regulation to get to overtime. Trailing 120-116 following Myles Turner layup with less than a minute to play, Maxey swiped a steal that led to a breakaway layup and, after another turnover, Harris followed a Maxey miss at the rim to tie the score with 6.1 seconds to play. Hield missed a driving floater at the buzzer.

Without the NBA’s second-leading scorer in Embiid, seven Sixers finished in double figures to record their 11th win in their past 13 games.

Harden led the Sixers with 26 points, eight assists, and six rebounds, while Harrell scored a season-high 19 points on 8-of-9 from the floor and added five rebounds and four blocks. Melton and Harris also had 19 points, while Maxey added 17, Shake Milton 13, and Georges Niang 11.

“These are the games and times where you find out who your team is,” Harden said of playing without Embiid for the ninth time this season. “ … Are you going to just make the excuse, or are you going to just keep pushing through it? We’ve done a really good job of pushing through it.”

The Sixers led 97-84 at the end of the third quarter, after Maxey got to the basket for a driving layup in the final seconds. But the Pacers (21-18) outscored the Sixers 36-23 in the fourth quarter, including a 16-3 run that turned an 11-point deficit into 115-113 lead when Hield buried back-to-back three-pointers and a Mathruin basket counted because of a goaltending call with less than three minutes to play.

Hield finished with 24 points on 6-of-14 from three-point range, while Mathurin added 19 off the bench and Haliburton flirted with a triple-double with 16 points, 12 assists, and seven rebounds.

The Sixers finish this three-game homestand Friday night against the Chicago Bulls before playing Sunday afternoon at the Detroit Pistons.

With Embiid sidelined and the freedom to up his minutes, Maxey returned to the starting lineup for the first time since fracturing his left foot. He put together his most well-rounded outing in his three games so far, adding six assists and five rebounds to his 6-of-16 shooting performance.

“It’s coming,” Rivers said of Maxey’s return to form. “You can see it ... he’ll be back very soon.”

Maxey still was not quite back to his original rotation, however. He played the first quarter’s initial six minutes, then returned late in the period to run point on the second unit comprised of Milton, Matisse Thybulle, Niang, and Harrell. During that time, he hit a spinning jumper, dished a wraparound pass to Harrell for a dunk, and found Niang for an open three-pointer. But he did not close the first half with the rest of the starters.

Maxey was impactful at the start of the third quarter, hitting a pull-up three-pointer, finding Harden for a deep shot, and aggressively driving to the basket. His layup in the third quarter’s final seconds put the Sixers up, 97-84.

He ran the same group at the start of the fourth, delivering a bounce pass to Thybulle that gave the Sixers a 101-90 advantage and hitting a jumper to put his team up, 106-94, before his impact plays down the stretch.

» READ MORE: Eight New Year’s resolutions for the Sixers to live by in 2022-23

The Sixers went small without Embiid, starting Tucker at center and three guards (Harden, Maxey and Melton) alongside Harris in an effort to match Indiana’s speed, Rivers said.

Yet Harrell was their most effective big man — as evidenced by his coach’s decision to go back to him over Tucker with the Sixers protecting a one-point lead with less than four minutes to play in regulation.

“He was giving us help on both ends,” Rivers said of Harrell. “So I just thought he was the right guy.”

In the first half, Harrell went a perfect 5-for-5 — including a finish through two defenders and celebratory flex — for 12 points. His bucket off a feed from Harris late in the third quarter pushed the Sixers’ lead to 93-84. His fourth-quarter dunk gave the Sixers a 108-96 advantage with eight minutes to go, before his crucial putback and block in the final two minutes of overtime.

“Just playing as hard as I can,” Harrell said. “Just doing all the little things that I know I can do. There’s nothing different from any of my other workouts, my regimens, any other way that I approach the game.

“I approach the game to play it like it’s my last game. I leave it all out there just play the right way, because, nine times out of 10, the basketball gods reward that.”

Harrell’s early insertion was because Tucker left the game in the first quarter with an apparent leg injury sustained when he took a knee to the thigh, Rivers said, and tumbled to the ground under the basket. After a stint in the locker room and on the stationary bike near the Sixers’ bench, Tucker reentered with about seven minutes to play in the second quarter.

Tucker missed all four of his shots — including a floater that was well off-target before the injury and a wide-open corner three-pointer after he returned — but grabbed seven rebounds in 25 minutes. He was the only starter who did not reach double figures.

Tucker is already dealing with a pinched nerve that originates in his neck and affects his right hand, and forced him out of a Dec. 27 loss at Washington. He also missed a Dec. 31 win at the Oklahoma City Thunder — the second night of a back-to-back — for knee injury management after having arthroscopic surgery over the summer.