76ers finish sweep of Nets without Embiid in 96-88 win

NEW YORK(AP) — Tobias Harris had 25 points and 12 rebounds, and thePhiladelphia 76ers overcame the absence of Joel Embiid to beat theBrooklyn Nets 96-88 on Saturday, completing a sweep that made themthe first team to reach the second round of the playoffs.

JamesHarden added 17 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds for thethird-seeded 76ers, who will wait for the winner of the seriesbetween the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks. The defending EasternConference champion Celtics have a 2-1 lead.

The 76ershope Embiid will be recover from his sprained right knee in timefor the start of the next series; the MVP finalist and two-time NBAscoring champion was ruled out Friday night and the 76ers struggledto score without him.

So theyturned to their defense, and ended up outscoring the Nets 21-4during a stretch of more than eight minutes in the thirdquarter.

TyreseMaxey finished a strong series with 16 points and Paul Reed added10 points and 15 rebounds after replacing Embiid in the startinglineup.

SpencerDinwiddie scored 20 points and Nic Claxton had 19 points and 12rebounds for the Nets, who were swept for the second straight yearand have lost 10 straight postseason games. They went 0-8 thisseason against the 76ers.

Embiid wentto the locker room early in Game 3 and was limping a couple timeslater in the game, but had a blocked shot to preserve a two-pointlead with 8.8 seconds left and said afterward he was OK. But coachDoc Rivers said Embiid was complaining of soreness behind his kneeand already had swelling shortly after the game. An MRI examrevealed the sprain.

DorianFinney-Smith’s 3-pointer two minutes into the third quarter made it53-42, matching the Nets’ largest lead of the game. But Harden andP.J. Tucker hit consecutive 3s to get the Sixers started on whatbecame a 14-0 run that made it 56-53 on Reed’s basket.

Maxey’s3-pointer extended it to 63-57 with 1:49 remaining in the period,capping the Nets’ lengthy drought that would have seemedunimaginable when Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving were inBrooklyn.

They wereboth dealt at midseason, and this team went down just as quickly asthe one they led last season, when Brooklyn was also the first teameliminated after getting swept by Boston.

Embiidaveraged only 20 points in the series, 13 below his NBA-leadingaverage of 33.1, as the Nets heavily double-teamed him.

But thosedouble-teams were leaving open looks for their guards that weren’tavailable Saturday, and the Sixers were just 2 for 11 from 3-pointrange in the first half as the Nets led 48-40.

But the76ers limited them to 40 points in the second half and eventuallypulled away to a 14-point lead as the cheers of the Sixers fans inthe building grew louder.

TIP-INS

76ers:Philadelphia’s eight-game winning streak against Brooklyn in theplayoffs is its second-longest ever against an opponent. The 76ersbeat the New York Knicks 10 straight times in the early 1980s.

Nets: TheNets fell to 0-7 all-time at home against the 76ers in thepostseason. ... Patty Mills played for the first time in theseries, going scoreless in five minutes. ... Brooklyn’s lastplayoff win remains Game 5 against Milwaukee in the 2021 Eastsemifinals.

DREADEDLETTERS

Rivers saidhe doesn’t worry when he sees Embiid appear to be hurting, as hewas at times during Game 3. His concerns begin when he is told themedical staff wants to do an MRI exam.

“As a coachI hate that word, I hate those three letters. I mean, because itnever comes out well,” Rivers said. “It just feels like thatwhenever they tell a coach, ‘Hey, we’re going to get an MRI,’ itdoesn’t turn out well most of the time and this one did not.”