Portugal Colonial - Embiid gives 76ers sixth straight win with victory in Cleveland

The 76ers, third in the East just a place ahead of the Cavs, were in a close contest until the end when Tyrese Maxey sunk a three-pointer and Philadelphia put away five free throws in the final 51 seconds to secure the win.

That all came after Embiid was initially ejected after being called for his sixth foul for pushing off on Evan Mobley with four minutes 12 seconds left on the clock.

But 76ers coach Doc Rivers challenged the call successfully and while he had to be careful for the remainder Embiid helped steer his side to a significant victory.

Embiid who also had 18 rebounds and four blocks said he had been given the benefit of the doubt by the officials.

The six-times All Star is a contender for this season's MVP award but said his focus was elsewhere.

"I am just trying to win, to get as many wins as we can and to kind of get the group together, doing our job. My team-mates are making my job easy. We are doing it as a team," he said.

"I am excited about the post-season but we have a lot of games coming up in the regular season, we have to take them one at a time and try to get better every day," he added.

Embiid was supported by James Harden who had 28 points and Maxey who put up 23.

Philadelphia are now just half a game behind the second-placed Boston Celtics and now own the tie-breaker over Cleveland.

The Celtics had their work cut out in Minneapolis against the Timberwolves, finally emerging with a 104-102 win.

Jaylen Brown put up 35 points and Jayson Tatum scored 22 with the latter making sure of the win with two free throws at the end.

- 'Whatever it takes' -

The Celtics struggled with their shooting -- they were 40.5% from the field and were 12 of 40 from 3-pointers but their defense delivered enough to grind out the win.

"We just stayed the course. I think defensively we won the game," said Brown.

"Whatever it takes to get a win. We have got to trust each other as team-mates that is part of being a good team, we have got to keep building those habits," he added.

The Miami Heat routed the Western Conference's third place team, the Memphis Grizzlies 138-119.

The Grizzlies remain without their star guard Ja Morant who on Wednesday was suspended eight games after streaming a video of himself holding a gun while intoxicated in a nightclub.

The suspension covers the six games Morant has already missed followed disciplinary action from his team and he will be eligible to play again from Monday.

Without him the Grizzlies found themselves down 28 points at the end of the third quarter, allowing Miami to rest Jimmy Butler, who had made 23 points, for the fourth quarter.

Bam Adebayo scored 26 and Tyler Herro 24 as the Heat produced season-best shooting of 59.8%.

The injury-hit Los Angeles Lakers fell to a 114-110 defeat to the Houston Rockets, the bottom team in the West.

The Lakers were without star LeBron James and key man Anthony Davis and shot just 37.4% from the field.

Austin Reaves top scored for the Lakers, coming off the bench to make 24 points while Kevin Porter top scored for Houston with 27 points.

The Dallas Mavericks, without their injured stars Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving won a scrappy game with the San Antonio Spurs 137-128.

De’Aaron Fox drained a three-pointer with 0.7 seconds left to give the Sacramento Kings a 117-114 victory at the Chicago Bulls.

L.E.Campos--PC