Sixers take over in fourth quarter to beat Dallas Mavericks in return of Joel Embiid and James Harden

With his team trailing by seven points in Wednesday’s final minute, Luka Dončić got a step on Tobias Harris and attempted to float a driving layup over Joel Embiid. But the 76ers’ big man quickly closed the gap, then flew in from behind to swat the ball away at the rim.

That rejection of the Dallas Mavericks’ superstar all but sealed a victorious return from injury for Embiid and standout teammate James Harden. The Sixers rallied from a double-digit first-half deficit to clinch a 116-108 victory at the Wells Fargo Center, which snapped a three-game skid.

“We hung in there,” Sixers coach Doc Rivers said. “It felt like we couldn’t get over the mountain for a while … it was just one of those mental-toughness games where you just win anyway. You figure it out, and you win anyway, and that’s what we did tonight ... I thought the competitiveness of our guys trumped how tired we were.”

The win moved the Sixers (50-26) to two games back of the Boston Celtics for second place in the Eastern Conference with six regular-season games remaining, and pushed them 2 1/2 games ahead of the fourth-place Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Sixers overcame a 12-point second-quarter hole to seize control in the final period, outscoring the Mavericks, 27-17.

De’Anthony Melton hit a corner three-pointer to put the Sixers up, 108-103 with 5 minutes, 43 seconds remaining, before a Tyrese Maxey bucket extended that lead to seven. After a deep three-pointer by Dončić cut the Sixers’ advantage to 111-108, Harris answered with a hook shot in the lane before Harden drew a foul and hit both free throws.

Rivers often points to the first game following a road trip — the Sixers had just played four consecutive contests (and 12 of their previous 15) away from home — as particularly challenging. And the Sixers indeed looked sluggish early on, trailing 60-48 late in the second quarter while surrendering 11 points off seven turnovers, allowing seven fastbreak points and shooting 42.5% from the floor before the break.

Yet the Sixers chipped away to briefly take a 74-71 lead in the third on a pair of Embiid free throws followed by a P.J. Tucker finish inside, before the Mavericks (37-40) answered with a 15-5 surge capped by a Dončić three-pointer to go back up, 86-79. The Sixers then staged a 10-5 run to enter the final period trailing by two.

Embiid finished with 25 points, nine rebounds, and three assists, while Harden scored 15 points on 4-of-14 shooting but added 12 assists and four rebounds. Maxey added 22 points, four rebounds, and four assists to continue his terrific scoring month.

And after Dončić and fellow Dallas All-Star guard Kyrie Irving combined for 82 points in a win against the Sixers earlier this month, they shot a combined 17-of-37 from the floor to combine for 47 points Wednesday.

“Just make them pick the dang ball up, and then rotate,” Rivers said of the defensive game plan on Dallas’ dynamic guards. “It’s so much better with them exploring [while dribbling].”

The Sixers next host the Toronto Raptors on Friday, before two marquee matchups at the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday and the Boston Celtics next Tuesday.

Harden swiftly connected with Embiid for a one-handed dunk in the opening minute, an emphatic sign that the dangerous tandem had returned.

It was a mixed bag after that — until the stretch run, when Harden totaled seven points and five assists to propel the Sixers to victory.

After both players returned from their second-half rest, Harden found Embiid for a three-pointer that tied the score at 103. Embiid followed with a go-ahead jumper over JaVale McGee at the 6:15 mark. Harden later sank two free throws that gave the Sixers a 115-108 lead with 1:05 to play, before Embiid’s key block.

“My confidence and repetition that I’ve always put in for these last 14 years,” Harden said, “I just go out there and just work on basketball instincts.”

Embiid said his tight calf felt “good enough.” Harden, meanwhile, said his Achilles tendon felt “OK” but “got a little sore” near the end of the game. He also revealed it has been bothering him “for some months, I would say” and expects some discomfort for the remainder of the season even after sitting the Sixers’ previous four games.

“I just wanted to continue to play on it,” Harden said. “There was one point to where, the last game I played [last week against Chicago], it was just really unbearable, so I couldn’t even go out there.”

Embiid scored 10 first-quarter points, including a spinning layup that sent Dallas’ Dwight Powell to the floor and a putback after Jalen McDaniels could not finish an alley-oop. Harden, meanwhile, missed his first five shots, before collecting his own miss and laying the ball in and hitting a catch-and-shoot three-pointer.

Embiid gave the Sixers a 72-71 lead on a pair of free throws with 7:15 to play in the third quarter, before Harden found Tucker for a finish inside on the Sixers’ next possession to increase that advantage to three. An Embiid jumper also tied the score at 76.

Rivers reiterated before the game that he was looking forward to the ripple-effect of Embiid and Harden returning to the court, which was complementary players clicking back into their roles and substitution patterns.

Melton (17 points on 5-of-6 from three-point range, six rebounds) was back to being the sixth man, but played 33 minutes. He was the Sixers’ first sub after Maxey picked up two fouls and also played with the starters for a period at the end of the first half, guarding Dončić. He then played down the stretch in place of Tucker, defending Irving.

Georges Niang also finished with an effective 14 points on 4-of-7 shooting from three-point range — including a deep shot that tied the score at 89 in the third quarter’s final seconds — and added two rebounds and two assists in 19 minutes. Rivers also praised McDaniels’ “incredible” defense during his stretches on Irving, allowing the Sixers to play straight-up without helping and keeping Embiid near the basket.

Maxey (not Harden) spearheaded the Sixers’ group at the start of the second quarter alongside Melton, Niang, McDaniels, and Paul Reed. Harden led that group to start the fourth.

Danuel House Jr. did not play in the first half, and only played 4.1 seconds total, when he briefly entered to play defense on Dallas’ final possession of the third quarter. Dewayne Dedmon and Shake Milton did not play at all.

The start of the second half was briefly delayed to fix the net on the basket closest to the Mavericks’ bench. It was a flashback, of sorts, to last January, when a crooked rim caused a lengthy delay when the same teams matched up in Dallas.

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