The visiting Philadelphia 76ers, who opted to rest all five starters, got 24 points apiece from Jalen McDaniels and Georges Niang and defeated the Atlanta Hawks 136-131 in overtime on Friday.
Niang, who matched his career high for points, scored eight points in the final two minutes of overtime as the Sixers outscored the Hawks 17-12 in the extra session. McDaniels, who fell two points short of his career scoring high, added 11 rebounds to equal his season high.
Despite the loss, Atlanta secured the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference’s play-in tournament when the Boston Celtics defeated the Toronto Raptors. Atlanta (41-40) has a one-game lead over the Raptors (40-41) and owns the tiebreaker.
Philadelphia (53-28) already had locked up the No. 3 spot, and it now knows its first-round playoff opponent, the sixth-seeded Brooklyn Nets (45-36).
Atlanta led by seven points with 1:50 remaining in the fourth quarter, but the Sixers tied the game at 119-119 when Jaden Springer tipped in a missed shot with 25.9 seconds remaining. The Hawks took a shot-clock violation and never got off a go-ahead attempt, sending the game to overtime.
The Sixers, who sat out Joel Embiid, James Harden, Tobias Harris, P.J. Tucker, Tyrese Maxey and De’Anthony Melton, ended Atlanta’s four-game winning streak and won the season series 3-1 over the Hawks.
Philadelphia also got 22 points from Danuel House Jr., 19 points from Springer and 15 points and a career-high 16 assists from Shake Milton.
Atlanta was led by Trae Young with 27 points and a career-high 20 assists. Dejounte Murray and John Collins both scored 19 points, Saddiq Bey had 15 points, De’Andre Hunter contributed 14, Clint Capela had 12 and Onyeka Okongwu finished with 10.
Philadelphia led by as many as eight in the first quarter, but Atlanta cut the deficit to 32-31 at the period’s end.
The Hawks opened the second quarter on a 15-2 run and took a 46-34 advantage on the way to enjoying a 63-53 lead at halftime. The Sixers cut the gap to two points, but Atlanta led 90-86 after three quarters.
Atlanta closes the regular season on Sunday at Boston. Philadelphia finishes the season on Sunday at Brooklyn in a playoff preview.
–Field Level Media
