‘Lucky’ Sixers rally to beat the Nets in James Harden’s return to Brooklyn

NEW YORK — Joel Embiid waved his arms to signal “no good” as the officials reviewed Spencer Dinwiddie’s last-second launch from 32 feet away. The 76ers’ star acknowledged nearly an hour after the game that he still had not seen a replay of the shot, but in the moment had caught wind from his team’s bench that the ball was still touching Dinwiddie’s hand as the clock hit zero.

Embiid’s prediction — or prayer — proved correct. The video evidence erased what would have been a game-tying logo bucket, allowing the 76ers to steal a 101-98 victory over the Nets on Saturday night at the Barclays Center in James Harden’s return to Brooklyn.

“I was like, ‘Thank God,’” Embiid said. “Because I don’t know what happened on that last possession. ... You’ve got to guard the three-point line, and we made a mistake. So we got lucky.”

That benchmark that appeared spicy as recently as last week abruptly lost significance after the Nets blew up their superteam that once included Harden by dealing MVP contender Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns on Thursday and All-Star Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks on Monday. The on-court intensity and surrounding atmosphere Saturday had nowhere near the sizzle of the Jan. 25 game in Philly, when Embiid and reviled former Sixer Ben Simmons — who was traded to the Nets a year ago in the deal that brought in Harden — matched up for the first time and the teams combined for six technical fouls.

“There was none of that ‘stuff’ anymore, which I’m all for,” coach Doc Rivers said. “I didn’t mind the rivalry stuff. That stuff’s good. But all the other stuff is gone. You could clearly see that. It was back to playing basketball, and that’s a good thing. ...

“We’ve played Ben now three times, and everybody’s gotten their energy out.”

But basketball drama arrived in the final seconds.

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With less than 10 seconds to play, Harden got downhill for an opportunity to sink his former team but missed at the rim. Yet Embiid — the superstar Harden has now teamed up with in Philly — was there to corral the rebound, draw the foul, and make the two free throws that put the Sixers up, 99-98, with 5.2 seconds to play.

Then after Mikal Bridges — the Philly native and former Villanova star who was at the center of the Durant blockbuster — missed a baseline layup for the Nets (33-23) with 2.4 seconds to play, Harden made the insurance free throws to complete the scoring before Dinwiddie’s deep shot.

The Sixers (36-19) trailed for the bulk of the game, before outscoring the Nets 25-16 in the final period while switching defensively on all screens regardless of position. An Embiid turnaround jumper cut their deficit to 98-97 with less than two minutes to play. Harden then missed a step-back three-pointer from the right wing on the Sixers’ next possession, before Dinwiddie lost the ball out of bounds to set up the Sixers’ final possession with 12.2 seconds remaining.

Embiid (37 points, 13 rebounds) and Harden (29 points, six rebounds, six assists) dominated the Sixers’ scoring, while the rest of the offense sputtered until some sharper crunch-time execution. The Sixers shot 44% from the floor, including 6-of-23 from three-point range, and committed 12 turnovers that the Nets parlayed into 18 points. Until a P.J. Tucker finish inside with 6 minutes, 53 seconds left in the third quarter, their other three starters had combined for only three points.

The Sixers have two games remaining before the All-Star break: Monday against the Houston Rockets and Wednesday against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

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Though Harden was booed during starting lineup introductions and while he had the ball early, the reception was not overwhelmingly hostile.

“I’ve never fed into what was going on,” said Harden, who did share he was not surprised Durant and Irving were traded during a candid postgame media session. “Even coming out here, it’s a game. I’m trying to win the game.

“I don’t get caught up into homecomings or all the outside distractions. I think our focus was to come in here and win the game, and we did a good job of that.”

Harden helped the Sixers initially chip away at their deficit in the fourth quarter, totaling eight points and four assists during that frame. He hit a jumper to cut the Nets’ lead to 94-87 with 7:20 left, then a driving layup to reduce that advantage to five points before two free throws got the Sixers within 96-93 with 5:27 to go.

Harden scored 17 first-half points on 6-of-12 from the floor, including a mix of step-back three-pointers, driving finishes, and a pull-up jumper. He scored four points in the third by making one of his two shots.

Bridges surely will want that final shot back. But that he had the ball in his hands demonstrated the impact he can make on his new team.

The fifth-year wing scored a team-high 23 points on 8-of-18 shooting, and added six rebounds. He buried three three-pointers and a couple of tough pull-up buckets. Bridges, an elite perimeter defender, also spent time guarding Harden.

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Simmons, meanwhile, continued to come off the bench and did not play down the stretch, even after the Nets’ roster overhaul. He finished with four points on 2-of-3 shooting — including an open look underneath that gave the Nets a 92-83 lead with 8:58 remaining — and added three rebounds and three assists in 16:24. He also occasionally guarded Embiid, but that matchup did not elicit the level of fan reaction as the last game in Philly.

An indicator of how many Sixers fans were inside the Barclays Center? Simmons was booed when he entered the game for the first time. Yet Rivers said following the game that he hopes Simmons can return to his All-Star form — and does not harbor any lingering ill will toward the former Sixers All-Star.

“It’s not like we’re enemies or anything like that,” Rivers said. “At the beginning, right away, none of us talked to anybody. That whole thing was awful. But that’s gone now. That’s in the past. We’re human. We move on.

“That’s part of life, man. Stuff happens. You’ve just got to move on from it and still love people. Usually, that energy is way more better than hate, I’ll tell you that.”

After arriving in Philly on Friday, newly acquired wing Jalen McDaniels got his first action as a Sixer and finished with five points, four rebounds, and one assist in 15:40.

Most notably, McDaniels was in the game for the Sixers’ final two defensive possessions as part of a big, unconventional lineup with Embiid, Tucker, Tobias Harris, and De’Anthony Melton.

“I’m a defender,” McDaniels said. “[Rivers] can trust me to put me in that position, so I appreciated it. … I feel like I have really good defensive instincts, so just throwing me out there, I know where to be.”

McDaniels got seven first-half minutes, elevating for an alley-oop dunk on a feed from Tyrese Maxey early in the second quarter and pulling down two rebounds. Early in the fourth quarter, he sank a key three-pointer from the left wing that cut the Nets’ lead to 82-79.

Rivers said he hopes McDaniels’ playing style marked by versatile defense, high energy, and not needing plays called for him will make his implementation easier.

“He’s going to really help us,” Rivers said. “His length, his rebounding, he’s going to be big for us. You can see it. [I’m] very happy with a guy that didn’t know what the hell we were doing [yet]. He literally didn’t know offense [or] defense.

“You could see guys screaming at him to get to this spot, go to that spot.”