That was a pretty encouraging game considering it came down to the wire despite....
1. The Sixers were healthy while the Cavs were missing Allen and Rubio
2. The Cavs were playing on the second night of a back-to-back with travel
3. The refs were clearly enthralled with Embiid and Harden and had no respect for the Cavs. "Oh shit, was that Joel's sixth foul? We better overturn it. Can't have that".
If the Cavs had Allen and a day off yesterday they probably win this one, even playing both the Sixers and the refs.
But give Philly credit - they played great defense, especially on Garland and Mitchell, they were almost automatic at the free throw line, and had a great night from deep, going 17-for-36. As usual, the 3-point shooting was the difference as the Cavs went 14-for-41; a 9-point difference in a 9-point loss.
The game was lost in the 3rd quarter when the Cavs gave up an 18-1 run after building a 13-point lead. We haven't seen that in a while, but the Cavs went 6:08 making just one free throw and that did them in.
Embiid was a man among boys, as usual. That lucky 3-point bank shot with five minutes to go was the nail in the coffin. But he ended up with 36 points, 18 boards, and 4 blocks. The refs let him do whatever he wanted when he had the ball in his hands.
Embiid, Harden, and Maxey combined for 87 points; the rest of the Sixers had 31. They're basically a 3-man team, but those three guys are really good.
The Cavs won the turnover battle 18-10 which kept them in the game. Mitchell and Garland combined to go 2-for-14 on 3's and we're not going to beat Philly with those guys clanking away like that. Even with LeVert having a great game they couldn't overcome both starting guards missing all those 3's. They didn't want to take it to the rim because Embiid was swatting everything in close.
It was great to see the Cavs bench kick in 45 points, but we needed Garland and Mitchell to have better games. The Sixers defended them very effectively, but they still missed a lot of uncontested shots, especially Darius who was 6-for-17.
With Allen out the Sixers got 13 offensive rebounds and it seemed like half of them resulted in a 3-pointer on the second attempt. On one missed shot Cedi and LeVert fought each other for an uncontested rebound, fumbled it out of bounds, and of course Philly hit a 3-pointer.
The announcers were so sure the offensive foul on Embiid would not be overturned that they said it was "one of the most shocking" review decisions of the season. Not just questionable. "Shocking". Anybody who doesn't think the refs protect the superstars can take a look at that play. Mobley got knocked on his butt and 10 feet away and the ruling was no foul by either player.
If the Cavs play the Sixers in the playoffs (unlikely) the Sixers will win. The refs will make sure of it.