Sixers’ late loss to Cleveland Cavaliers sparked by Georges Niang’s game-high 25 points against former team
Kyle Lowry led the Sixers in scoring with 23 points, but a late go-ahead three-pointer from Evan Mobley put the Cavaliers ahead for good.
CLEVELAND — Georges Niang pump-faked to get Paul Reed into the air, then splashed the three-pointer and screamed as he strutted back to the bench for a timeout.
It was a burst of emotions the 76ers are plenty familiar with. But Friday night, Niang burned his former team, dropping a game-high 25 points off the bench to help lift the Cavaliers to a 117-114 win at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
“It sucks being on the other side,” said Sixers All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey of Niang. “But we know what he’s capable of doing. We know once he sees one or two go in, it’s going to be hard to contain him from the three-point line.”
Niang went 5-of-8 from beyond the arc, propelling Cleveland to a down-to-the-wire victory in a matchup between two sputtering teams trying to gain traction before the playoffs.
The loss dropped the Sixers (39-35), who remain in eighth place in the Eastern Conference standings, 1½ games behind the seventh-place Miami Heat (who defeated the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday) and 2½ games behind the Indiana Pacers (who beat the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday).
Cleveland (45-20) had lost four of its previous five games entering Friday, but climbed back into third place with the win over the Sixers. All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell, who had been sidelined with a knee injury and broken nose, returned Friday, finishing with 12 points on 4-of-13 shooting, including the game-sealing free throws with 12.8 seconds to go.
That was part of the Sixers’ second consecutive dramatic finish — and heartbreaking defeat.
Maxey missed a potential game-tying step-back three-pointer just before the buzzer, capping a night when he went 7-of-26 from the floor to finish with 16 points, along with 11 assists. Maxey had briefly put the Sixers ahead at 113-112 with a fastbreak layup with 39.6 seconds to play, before Cleveland’s Evan Mobley answered with a corner three-pointer that gave the Cavaliers the lead for good.
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Kyle Lowry’s team-high 23 points marked his scoring high since joining the Sixers off the buyout market last month. That included multiple clutch buckets, including a jumper that cut what had been an eight-point Cavaliers advantage to 104-101 with about five minutes remaining and a turnaround shot that got the Sixers within one with 56.7 seconds to go. Then, Lowry assisted Maxey’s go-ahead layup.
Tobias Harris (21 points, seven rebounds), Mo Bamba (14 points on 6-of-7 shooting, seven rebounds), and Reed (12 points, seven rebounds, three blocks) also finished in double figures.
The Sixers took an 87-85 lead into the fourth quarter, after Buddy Hield buried a three-pointer in the third frame’s final minute. The teams traded leads through the fourth quarter’s initial three minutes, until Niang gave the Cavaliers a 98-94 cushion at 8:40.
Another familiar face pushed that advantage to 102-94 a minute later, when Marcus Morris Sr. — the North Philly native whom the Sixers acquired in the James Harden blockbuster trade but then dealt at the deadline — buried a three-pointer and slammed his arm in celebration in front of the Sixers bench.
The Sixers trailed by only 57-55 at halftime despite shooting 38.3% from the floor. Harris anchored the offense, scoring 14 of his points before the break. In the first half, the Sixers also outrebounded the Cavaliers, 24-18, parlayed eight Cleveland turnovers into 10 points, and had 14-5 edge in free-throw attempts.
The Sixers will conclude this two-game road trip on Sunday at the Toronto Raptors (6 p.m., NBCSP), in a homecoming of sorts for coach Nick Nurse and Lowry. On Tuesday, the Sixers will then host the Oklahoma City Thunder, are tied with Minnesota atop the Western Conference (7:30 p.m., TNT).