CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The Cavaliers’ bid for a top-6 seed to avoid the Play-In Tournament, which they’ve already secured, took a major hit Sunday evening.
The 76ers clinched their own top-6 playoff spot.
Amid the physicality and feel of a playoff game that came down to the final 30 seconds, the 112-108 loss to the 76ers was decided at the free throw line – plenty of charity tosses for Philadelphia and swallowed whistles for Cleveland.
“We deserved to win that game. That game was taken from us,” a frustrated Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “We deserved to win it.”
76ers center Joel Embiid was unstoppable scoring a game-high 44 points to go with 17 rebounds, three assists, five blocks and a steal in the victory. He shot 20 of the 76ers 42 free throws, making 17 of them.
James Harden registered a triple double – 21 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists – for Philadelphia, who improved to 48-30. Harden shot a dozen free throws making 11 while putting on Oscar-worthy performances to earn whistles.
“They’re great players and they understand how to play through the rules, and they know how to manipulate the rules,” Bickerstaff said. “This is no knock or disrespect on those guys, but the game has to be consistent on both ends of the floor.
“If there’s contact on one end [and] it’s a foul then [if there’s] contact on the other end, it’s gotta be a foul. Tonight we were searching for that consistency and I don’t think we ever found it.”
Between Embiid and Harden, they combined to shoot more free throws – 32 – than the entire Cavs team did – 31 – Sunday evening leading Bickerstaff to put himself in position to potentially write a check to the league office for daring to criticize substandard officiating.
“We did a great job defensively of making their two best players have a difficult time from the field, but one thing you can’t defend is the free throw line,” Bickerstaff said. “That’s absurd. That’s absurd. Our guys deserve way better than what they got tonight.”
Bickerstaff’s Cavs were called for 28 personal fouls compared to just 19 called on Philadelphia.
Following the game, Lamar Stevens walked gingerly to the microphone to speak with reporters, battered and bruised from a tough night at the office for the Cavs.
“It was very physical,” Stevens, who scored 18 points off the bench said. “My body’s hurting right now, but that’s how it is. Coach always talks about getting us ready for playoff environments and that’s what it’s going to be when we get there so it’s all preparation and learning experiences for us to be better.”
Stevens, who scored 18, got to the free throw line a team-best seven times, making six battling Embiid.
“He’s like a truck,” Stevens said. “He’s the biggest person I’ve seen in my life that can move that well and do the things that he does. He’s a big guy.”
It was Embiid’s 11th game this season with at least 40 points and 10 rebounds this season.
Despite the free throw disparity and lack of calls on their home floor, the Cavs led by as many as 12 in the second quarter and had a chance in the final minute to pull it out.
A no-call on Embiid swatting Darius Garland, who led the Cavs with 23 points, on a drive to the basket and critical turnover by Kevin Love on an inbounds pass to Garland sealed their fate.
Trailing 109-106 with 11.2 seconds remaining, Love's pass was stolen by Matisse Thybulle, who tossed the ball down the floor to Tobias Harris for a dunk to put the game away.
“Obviously we were trying to get the ball into Darius’ hands, and they did a good job of getting through the screen and making the pass difficult,” Bickerstaff said.
Forward Caris LeVert continues to play well since being inserted into the starting lineup putting in 18 points to go with seven assists and three rebounds.
“We played hard enough to win,” LeVert said. “Felt like we played a pretty complete game offensively and=defensively. There was a lot of adversity that we fought through for sure but I think if we keep that same effort and that same focus that we had for 48 minutes, I think we’ll be alright.”
Veteran Rajon Rondo returned from a sprained ankle and played over 14 minutes scoring six points off a pair of 3-pointers in the loss.
To avoid the Play-in Tournament, Cleveland will need to win all three of their remaining games – at Orlando and Brooklyn this week and the regular season finale against the Bucks next Sunday at home and need Toronto and or Chicago to lose out.