76ers top Suns, take win streak to four games

Joel Embiid supplied 26 points and 11 rebounds as the host Philadelphia 76ers beat the short-handed Phoenix Suns 112-100 on Saturday afternoon.

Embiid made 9 of 18 shots en route to his third straight double-double. Kelly Oubre Jr. added 25 points and Tobias Harris chipped in 18 to go along with 10 rebounds for Philadelphia, which pushed its winning streak to four games.

However, it was Philadelphia's Tyrese Maxey who virtually put the game away, canning a pair of triples in a 1 1/2-minute span midway through the fourth quarter that ran the Sixers' lead to 104-86.

Maxey finished with 22 points and 10 assists.

Kevin Durant finished with a game-high 31 points for Phoenix, which was without star guards Devin Booker (ankle) and Bradley Beal (back). Booker has only played two games so far this season, while Beal has yet to make his Suns debut.

Eric Gordon notched 13 points and Jusuf Nurkic tallied 11 points and nine rebounds as Phoenix dropped its third straight game.

A strong fourth quarter raised Philadelphia's shooting percentage to 47.8 for the game, but the Suns struggled throughout, connecting on just 32 of 89 shots (36.0 percent).

After the Sixers built a 10-point lead, Durant scored six points to headline an 8-0 run that made it 43-41 with 2:32 left in the first half. But Philadelphia recovered, taking a 52-45 advantage into the break.

Oubre led all first-half scorers with 17 points, while Durant had 14 for the Suns, who were hampered by a 5-for-20 performance from beyond the arc through the first 24 minutes of action.

Philadelphia had seemingly seized control of the game when it went up by 14 thanks to Embiid's three-point play with 7:51 to go in the third.

Durant helped Phoenix hang around, though, scoring eight points in the final 5:57 of the period as the Suns cut their deficit to 80-75 heading into the fourth.

Neither team led by more than five in the first quarter, which was capped by Jordan Goodwin's 3-pointer at the buzzer that pulled Phoenix within 25-24.