The Golden State Warriors stormed back from an 11-point deficit to beat the Philadelphia 76ers last night 120-112, despite a 46-point effort from Joel Embiid.

Embiid dominated the Warriors last night, shooting 13-for-23 from the floor, and connecting on 19 of 22 free throws, to score 46 points along with nine rebounds, eight assists, two steals and a block on the night.

The Sixers took an 88-79 lead into the fourth quarter and for whatever reason, Doc Rivers, I guess, found that to be a comfortable margin. The Sixers’ head coach started the final frame with the following lineup, which as you can see, was questionable at best.

Sixers Lineup to begin the 4th Quarter

• Shake Milton
• Tyrese Maxey
• Georges Niang 
• Furkan Korkmaz
• Paul Reed

Embiid played the entire third quarter, so obviously, he needed a break at some point, but the fact that Rivers opted to play him the entire third and not stagger his minutes to avoid a situation where you start the final frame on the road with that rotation while holding a double-digit lead is a criminal offense.

The result, as you could imagine, was Embiid checking back into the game with 8:26 left on the clock as Jordan Poole scored on a driving dunk to put Golden State back to 93-91. 

Even with Embiid checking back in with 8:26 left on the clock and scoring 13 straight points, the effort wasn’t enough as Jordan Poole scored on a driving dunk to put Golden State back 93-91.  Poole scored 33 points including a clutch 3-pointer with just 1:18 left on the clock as Steph Curry scored 29 points and Klay Thompson scored 21 points to go along with six rebounds in the win. 

Look, I wouldn’t put too much weight on the game last night. I even said tweeted that the Sixers should simply let Embiid “get his” and then let The Bay take it. The injury risk over the final 10 games of the season just isn’t worth it for a team that should be solely focused on the playoffs. 

James Harden and Jalen McDaniels didn’t play last night, and the Sixers will now play in Phoenix tonight against the Suns. 

At the same time, when you have a double-digit lead heading into the fourth quarter and you start the lineup above instead of stepping on the throats of Golden State, who improved to 30-7 at hoe with the win, things tend to get frustrating. 

On the night, only three players on the Sixers scored in double-digits. 

• Joel Embiid: 46 PTS, 9 REB, 8 AST, 2 STL, 1 BLK
• Tobias Harris: 23 PTS, 6 REB, 3 AST 
• Tyrese Maxey: 21 PTS, 4 REB, 5 AST, 1 STL 

De’Anthony Melton scored eight points, while no other Sixers player scored above 5 points. PJ Tucker, yet again, was held to 0 points on 0-5 shooting from three point range while Georges Niang only scored 5 points on 1-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc. 

Yikes. 

Anyways, the Sixers will be in Phoenix tonight followed by Denver on Monday night. I would be surprised if Embiid played tonight on the second leg of a back-to-back with a heated matchup against Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets on Monday night, but we’ll see. No word on James Harden and Jalen McDaniels. 

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