Coverage of the NBA playoffs continues on Saturday night as the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks meet for Game 7 in New York, with the winner advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals. Join us live from 01:30am on Sky Sports Mix and Arena
Sunday 20 June 2021 01:40, UK
Joel Embiid scored 22 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, and the Philadelphia 76ers rallied for a 104-99 win over the host Atlanta Hawks to stave off elimination in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semi-finals on Friday night.
The teams will meet in a winner-take-all Game 7 on Sunday night in Philadelphia.
Seth Curry and Tobias Harris scored 24 points apiece for top-seeded Philadelphia, who bounced back on the road after squandering a 26-point lead at home in Game 5. Tyrese Maxey added 16 points and seven rebounds off the bench.
Trae Young led the fifth-seeded Hawks with 34 points and 12 assists. Kevin Huerter finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds, and Danilo Gallinari contributed 16 points for Atlanta, who are trying to reach the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2015.
Atlanta pulled within 100-97 with 14 seconds to go on a put-back dunk by Clint Capela, but Harris sank a pair of free throws to increase the lead to five points with 13.3 seconds to go. Huerter added a jump shot for the Hawks' final basket, but Atlanta could not close the gap as Harris closed the scoring with two free throws.
Philadelphia led 80-76 at the end of the third quarter.
The 76ers opened the quarter on a 14-0 run to transform a four-point half-time deficit into a 61-51 advantage. Curry tallied 11 points during the run with a trio of three-pointers and a long pull-up jump shot. Atlanta were on top 51-47 at the half. Young led all scorers with 20 first-half points on 8-for-15 shooting.
The Hawks opened the game on a 10-2 run, which was capped by a floating jump shot by Huerter. Philadelphia trailed by as many as 12 points in the first quarter.
An alley-oop dunk by Capela capped a 10-0 run that made it 39-29 in favour of Atlanta with 7:26 to go in the first half. Philadelphia responded with an 11-2 run, capped by a layup from Furkan Korkmaz that sliced the deficit to one point with 3:41 to go.
Young hit a three-pointer from 35 feet in the final minute of the first half to push the Hawks' lead to 51-45, but Embiid sank a driving layup on the opposite end to pull the 76ers within four at half-time.
