Embiid’s double-double leads 76ers past Spurs, losers of 8 straight

SAN ANTONIO(AP) — Joel Embiid had 33 points and 10 rebounds and thePhiladelphia 76ers beat San Antonio 137-125 on Friday night,sending the scuffling Spurs to their eighth straight loss.

Tyrese Maxeyhad 25 points and James Harden added 16 for Philadelphia, which hasthe third-best record in the Eastern Conference.

“Tonight wasone of those games where it was difficult to get up,” Harden said.“But you’ve got to still be professional. You’ve got to be an eliteteam. That’s where we are trying to get to consistently. We weren’tconsistent enough tonight.

“We got awin, but we’ve got to try to be better overall.”

San Antoniorookie Malaki Branham set a season high for the second straightgame with 26 points, eclipsing his 22-point outing Wednesday in aloss to Sacramento.

KeldonJohnson added 18 points and Jakob Poeltl had 16 points and 10rebounds in San Antonio’s final home game before embarking on anine-game road trip that ends Feb. 28.

The Spurs are9-37 since opening the season 5-2.

Embiid,Harden and Tobias Harris returned to the court with five minutesremaining after San Antonio trimmed Philadelphia’s 22-point lead tojust 10 at 122-112. Embiid and Harden combined for eight points andthree rebounds in 3 1/2 minutes to seal the victory.

“A couple ofus older guys on the bench were happy for them when they brought itback all the way to like 10 or nine points,” Poeltl said. “Madethem bring their starters back in. It was fun to watch them outthere just playing free, playing aggressive.”

Embiid, whowas listed as questionable with a sore left foot, was 10 for 18from the field, 2 for 3 on 3-pointers and 11 for 13 on free throwsin an efficient 29 minutes. Named an All-Star reserve Thursday,Embiid added four assists and two steals.

The Spurswere without injured starters Devin Vassell, Jeremy Sochan and TreJones, as well as Romeo Langford, who has started 19 games.

Their absencecontributed to San Antonio committing 18 turnovers that led to 26points for Philadelphia.

“Giving up 26points off turnovers makes it impossible (to win),” Spurs coachGregg Popovich said. “That was the most disappointing part of thegame. Their grunt and their ability to just play the game is super,but taking care of the basketball is pretty important and we didn’tdo that tonight. That was the bad part of the game.”

Philadelphiastarted the game with three straight turnovers in falling behind8-1. The 76ers rallied to end the first quarter tied at 26 and thenoutscored the Spurs 47-35 in the second quarter.

The runincluded a one-handed alley-oop dunk by Embiid on a pass fromHarden followed by a fastbreak dunk by Harris in building a 66-49lead.

The secondunit then began a charge that ended in Philadelphia’s benchoutscoring San Antonio’s 67-42.

“That’s whatwe’re going to need from them,” Harden said. “Consistently they runtheir sets. With that unit, it’s about just getting stops. We getstops, we give ourselves a chance to get out in transition.”

TIP-INS

76ers: Hardensaid he was fine after exiting for the locker room with a secondremaining in the first half after falling on his elbow late in thefirst half. Harden returned early for warmups and started thesecond half. ... Philadelphia coach Doc Rivers was honored beforethe game as part of the Spurs’ 50th anniversary celebration. Riversplayed his final two seasons in the NBA with the Spurs, beginningin 1994. ... Play was stopped midway through the first quarter sothe 76ers could tend to a minor cut near Embiid’s right thumb thatwas bleeding. Embiid drained a 3-pointer on the next play.

Spurs: SanAntonio’s next home game is March 2 against Houston. ... SanAntonio has the league’s second-longest active losing streak,trailing New Orleans’ 10-game skid. ... Popovich received atechnical foul with 5 minutes remaining in the first quarter afterstomping down the sideline and screaming at official Mousa Dagher.Popovich was upset no foul was called on a reverse layup attemptedby Keldon Johnson.

UPNEXT

76ers: At LosAngeles Lakers on Monday.

Spurs: AtChicago on Tuesday.