LOS ANGELES: The Philadelphia 76ers beat Brooklyn 102-97 on Thursday in a rugged clash that featured two ejections and a controversial kick from Joel Embiid and moved the Sixers one win away from a sweep of their NBA first-round play-off series.
The 76ers, down by five with 2:15 remaining at Brooklyn's Barclays Center, surged home to take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference clash, the Nets well aware that no NBA team has come back from 3-0 down to win a series.
Embiid, Philadelphia's MVP candidate, scored just 14 points but pulled down 10 rebounds and produced a crucial block with eight seconds remaining and Philadelphia up by two.
Nets coach Jacque Vaughn expressed frustration that Embiid was even in the game at that point, marvelling after the contest that Embiid wasn't ejected when he aimed a kick from the floor at Nic Claxton's groin as the Nets player stepped over him in the first quarter.
Embiid had hit the deck when he tangled with Claxton as the Nets player threw down an alley-oop dunk.
"I don't think I've ever seen that in my career before," Vaughn said. "For a guy to intentionally kick someone in an area that none of us want to be kicked at or toward, and for him to continue to play. I've never seen that before."
Sixers star James Harden was tossed late in the third quarter after piling his shoulder into Royce O'Neale's body on a drive to the basket.
And Brooklyn's Claxton was ejected early in the fourth when he picked up a second technical foul for a muscle-flexing taunt of Embiid.
"We stayed together," Embiid said of the key to the hard-fought victory. "We kept playing through everything that was going on."
Tyrese Maxey keyed the late surge, scoring 10 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter.
His step-back three-pointer with 44.7 seconds left gave the Sixers a 99-96 lead.
Spencer Dinwiddie cut the deficit by one with a free throw and looked headed for a game-tying layup when Embiid soared up to reject the shot and the Sixers held on.
"We didn't have our stuff, we didn't do a lot of things right," 76ers coach Doc Rivers said. "A lot of things didn't go our way -- we just hung in there and won the game."
'NATURAL REACTION'
Harden was steaming at his ejection -- for a flagrant 2 foul -- over what he insisted was a normal basketball play.
"Honestly, I don't think it was a foul," he said. "When somebody's draped over you like that defensively, it's just a natural basketball reaction," he said.
Mikal Bridges led the Nets with 26 points and Dinwiddie added 20, but Brooklyn are in danger of being swept for the second straight season.
Embiid, who went to the locker room briefly in the first quarter and could be seen limping later in the game, said the Sixers need to be better in Saturday's game four -- and that he'd be ready.
"I'm OK," he said. "I took a lot of shots today, but I'm fine."
In other games on Thursday, defending champions Golden State Warriors tried to claw out of a 2-0 hole when they hosted the Sacramento Kings.
The Warriors were without star Draymond Green, who was suspended one game after stamping on Sacramento's Domantas Sabonis in game two.
The Los Angeles Clippers were without injured Kawhi Leonard as they hosted the Phoenix Suns in game three of their Western Conference series. The teams split the first two games in Phoenix. -- AFP
NBA RESULTS
Suns bt Clippers 129-124
Warriors bt Kings 114-97
76ers bt Nets 102-97
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