PHILADELPHIA: This was supposed to be a night to celebrate LeBron James entering the top 10 in NBA history in scoring.
It was supposed to be a night of rest — even coach Tyronn Lue acknowledged before the game he hoped to play little-used reserves such as Kay Felder and Chris Andersen.
Instead, the unbeaten 6-0 Cavaliers trailed the winless Philadelphia 76ers by five points with less than four minutes to play. James did crack the top 10, but nothing else went right in a 102-101 win over the Sixers in a game that ended with the Philadelphia crowd booing the officials off the floor.
J.R. Smith poked the ball away from Gerald Henderson with the final seconds ticking away and Iman Shumpert recovered the steal, allowing the Cavs to escape on a night that felt almost like a loss anyway.
Kyrie Irving shot 3-of-17 and the Cavs led by 18 in the first half before giving it all away again, continuing a disturbing and recurring trend that has plagued them throughout this young season.
A jumper by Joel Embiid put the Sixers ahead 98-93 with 3:54 left, matching their largest lead of the game and setting up a frenetic finish. The Cavs were out of rhythm from the start and spent most of the evening missing open looks, skipping passes out of bounds and arguing with officials.
A 3-pointer by Channing Frye gave the Cavs a 102-101 lead with 1:05 left. They had a chance to seal it on the Sixers’ next possession when Irving stole a pass by Embiid, yet Irving inexplicably threw the ball the length of the floor into the frontcourt even though no Cavs player was in position to go get it. The Sixers easily chased it down to retain possession.
Following another turnover by the Sixers, Smith missed a 3-pointer that could’ve put the game away.
After the Sixers grabbed the rebound, Sixers coach Brett Brown called a timeout to draw up one play with 7.3 seconds left and a chance to win it.
Gerald Henderson tried unsuccessfully to inbound the ball the first time and was forced to call another timeout. After inbounding the ball to Robert Covington, Henderson got the ball back and attacked the basket. He was met by Smith and James, and Smith poked the ball away. Shumpert grabbed it as time expired and furious fans booed because a foul wasn’t called.
The Cavs led by 18 in the second quarter, but by the start of the fourth the Sixers had cut it to 82-80.
James had 25 points, 14 assists and eight rebounds despite shooting 9-of-23. Irving finished with just eight points and combined with James to commit nine turnovers. Kevin Love had 20 points and 11 rebounds.
Embiid scored 22 points for the Sixers, but also committed six turnovers and grabbed six rebounds.
James moved past Hakeem Olajuwon and into 10th place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. His basket with 6:02 left in the first quarter gave him 26,947 points in his 14-year career.
He could conceivably climb as high as seventh this season, passing Elvin Hayes, Moses Malone and his former teammate Shaquille O’Neal (28,596).
Lue played with both O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, who ranks third on the list, and said he believes James doesn’t get enough credit for his scoring.
“He’s a great all-around player so we sometimes forget how great of a scorer he is,” Lue said before the game. “And he’s right up there with those guys. They had a different mentality as far as Kobe wants to score, kill you every single night. But LeBron will beat you in every facet of the game.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.