Houston (AFP) – Tyrese Maxey scored 38 points to spark the Philadelphia 76ers in a fightback 109-104 NBA victory at Charlotte on Saturday while LeBron James and Joel Embiid were rested with injuries. Star guard Maxey scored 15 points in the fourth quarter as the Sixers (6-1) rallied from 13 points down for their fourth comeback win of more than 10 points this season.
“I don’t want to do that. I’m tired of doing that,” Maxey said of fightback triumphs. “This group is some fighters. We went up, went down, came back. We’re very competitive. The game is not over until it’s over and that’s what I really like about this group. We don’t like losing. We keep the game close, it’s going to be tough to beat us.” Anfernee Simons added 19 off the bench and Jaylen Brown scored 16 for Philadelphia. Reserve Grayson Allen led the Hornets (3-4) with 27 points while Brandon Miller had 24 in a losing cause.
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James and Embiid rested after a victory over New York on Friday. Both sat for injury management, 41-year-old James for lower back sciatica and Embiid with a sore right foot. Maxey stepped up and delivered enough to secure another clutch victory. “I always trust somebody is going to be open and I’m going to make the right decision,” Maxey said. “We have a lot of different weapons to go to, a lot of options, and we’re very competitive.”
Maxey scored 19 first-half points to give the Sixers a 57-54 halftime lead with Allen netting 19 on 7-of-8 shooting. Charlotte led most of the second half, but two Maxey free throws with 1:22 remaining put the Sixers ahead 102-101. V.J. Edgecombe added a stepback three-pointer and Maxey sank two more free throws for a 107-101 lead with 23.8 seconds to play. “I told him, ‘Don’t pass me the ball. Do what you do. You always hit big shots like this,'” Maxey said he told Edgecombe. “So he did it again.”
Miller’s three-pointer lifted the Hornets closer, but Brown made two free throws to seal victory.
– Memphis still perfect –
Memphis remained the NBA’s only undefeated team with a 136-105 triumph over winless Sacramento, with Cameroon Boozer scoring 27 points as the Grizzlies improved to 6-0. Darius Acuff scored 38 points in defeat. At San Antonio, Victor Wembanyama scored 43 points, pulled down seven rebounds, and blocked six shots in leading the Spurs over Minnesota 121-111. Dylan Harper added 25 points and De’Aaron Fox had 22 as San Antonio improved to 4-2.
The Houston Rockets, who suffered their first loss of the season on Friday at Dallas, got 30 points from Jabari Smith in a 119-98 bounce-back home victory over injury-hit Oklahoma City (4-2). “Losing rubbed us the wrong way so we didn’t want to lose two in a row,” Smith said. “We wanted to come out here ready to play and we got it done.” Houston (6-1) also had 24 points from Marcus Smart and 14 from Kevin Durant, plus 16 points, nine rebounds, and nine assists from Alperen Sengun.
Cleveland’s Evan Mobley scored 27 points, and Jarrett Allen added 25 points and 11 rebounds to power Cleveland’s 136-111 victory at Milwaukee. Reserve Saddiq Bey scored 25 points, and Jeremiah Fears added 20 to give host New Orleans a 121-99 victory over Atlanta. Deni Avdija scored 24 points and Damian Lillard added 22 to spark Portland (4-1) to a 112-90 victory at Utah (1-5).
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