Philadelphia 76ers' Tobias Harris (12) goes up for a shot against Toronto Raptors' Norman Powell (24) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019, in Philadelphia.Matt Slocum/The Associated Press
Tobias Harris scored 26 points and rookie Matisse Thybulle had a career-high 20 points, including a pair of free throws with 23 seconds left, to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to their 12th straight home victory, 110-104 over the Toronto Raptors on Sunday night.
Ben Simmons had 16 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists a day after scoring a career-high 34 points while hitting his second career three-pointer as the Sixers remained unbeaten at home this season.
Kyle Lowry, playing in his second game after missing 11 in a row because of a broken left thumb, scored 26 points, and OG Anunoby had 19 points and 10 rebounds for Toronto. The defending champion Raptors have lost three in a row.
Joel Embiid returned from a one-game absence due to a hip injury, finishing with 10 points and eight rebounds. Embiid was benched with 2:08 remaining after committing turnovers on three straight Philadelphia possessions that turned a seemingly easy victory into a tight one. He had seven of Philadelphia’s 17 turnovers.
The Raptors, who trailed by as many as 20 points in the third quarter, got as close as five before Thybulle’s two free throws with 26.3 seconds left sealed the deal.
It wasn’t Embiid’s best performance, but it was much better than the last time the teams met.
Embiid had the worst game of his career in a 101-96 loss at Toronto on Nov. 25. He was scoreless in 32 minutes, went zero for 11 from the field, including zero for 4 from three-point range, and missed all three free-throw attempts. In the five games that followed and entering Sunday, Embiid averaged 26.8 points and 15.2 rebounds while going to the free-throw line 64 times, making 56.
Toronto got close late, but had dug too big of a hole in the third quarter.
Philadelphia held Toronto to 36-per-cent shooting in the first half while taking a 57-42 lead at the break. The 76ers continued to clamp down on the Raptors offence after halftime and got a big lift from the bench during a decisive third-quarter run that saw their lead grow to as many as 20 points, 73-53, on Al Horford’s hook with 4:23 remaining in the period.
It was 63-53 Philadelphia when Lowry made the first of two free throws with 5:51 left. Then, Thybulle sandwiched a pair of three-pointers around a James Ennis III layup before Horford’s shot that capped a 10-0 run over 1:28. Simmons put the exclamation point on the quarter with a driving, one-handed slam over Marc Gasol.
Fred VanVleet (right knee contusion) was injured in the first half and didn’t return. He had two points in 12 minutes and missed his only three-point attempt, ending his streak of at least one three in every game this season. Now, only Houston’s James Harden and Brooklyn’s Taurean Prince have a three in every game this season. Terence Davis II was issued a Flagrant 1 foul with 34.4 seconds left in the first quarter while contesting Mike Scott’s three-pointer.
The Raptors’ next game is in Chicago on Monday night against the Bulls.