

Joel Embiid has been through a lot in the Sixers‘ home arena: rip-roaring victories in the playoffs, crushing defeats, MVP honors, and even his professional debut. It took just two games with LeBron James for an all-time night in his only professional home, as a South Philadelphia crowd nearly caved the roof in with sound as the Sixers rallied from 29 points down to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“That was probably a top-five night for me since I’ve been in Philadelphia,” Embiid said after the victory.
It was, by many measures, a top-five night for most people involved in the game. Philadelphia’s win earned LeBron the biggest comeback win of his storied career, and it marks the biggest Sixers comeback of the play-by-play era, the first time in 467 games that a team had been down by as many as 29 points and overcome a deficit of 29+ points in the regular season.
Big comebacks have become more common in this three-point-centric league, and that’s what makes this Sixers comeback so special. They shot just 7/28 from beyond as a team, hitting just 3/13 in the second half as they climbed out of their own grave. They did not shoot their way back into the game so much as they choked their opponents into submission, turning what looked like a statement win for Cleveland into ritualistic humiliation. And it became clear this game wasn’t over when the Sixers stormed out of halftime and hit the Cavs with an immediate 10-0 flurry in the first 51 seconds of the third quarter.
The 180-degree turn was made easy, the Sixers thought, because their halftime talk didn’t require a rah-rah speech or an elaborate series of changes to the scheme. Tyrese Maxey asked his teammates a simple question, and the rest hardly needed to be said.
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2 Comments
Michael Curran
As I watched last night’s game a few thoughts rolled around in my brain.
Last year, they would have caved and lost this game with no threat of coming back.
This is no longer Joel Embiid’s team. This is Tyrese Maxey’s team.
The championship pedigree of Lebron and Jaylen Brown have already impacted this team…just 2 games in.
PHLClassic
I think that Jo coming back from surgery last spring and the Celtics series were key in building confidence even w/o the huge bonus of JB and LBJ. We are so in, baby! Praying for good health and some miraculous delivery of a back-up center.