PHILADELPHIA _ The undermanned 76ers once again held off an underwhelming opponent.
This time, it was a 106-100 victory Saturday night over the Dallas Mavericks at the Wells Fargo Center. The Sixers saw their commanding 19-point, fourth-quarter lead shrink to four points with 50 seconds remaining.
However, Joel Embiid and Furkan Korkmaz combined to make four foul shots down the stretch as they held on to their six-point victory.
Embiid finished with a game-high 25 points and Ben Simmons notched his sixth triple-double as the Sixers (26-14) extended their winning streak to three games.
Meanwhile, the Mavericks (18-21) have lost three of their last four games. They also dropped to a league-worst 3-18 road record.
The Sixers were without swingman Jimmy Butler and power forward Wilson Chandler for the second straight game. Both players are sidelined with upper respiratory infection.
As a result, swingman Korkmaz and power forward Jonah Bolden, once again, joined Embiid, Simmons and JJ Redick in the starting lineup.
Simmons finished with 20 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists. He secured the triple-double when he grabbed an offensive rebound with 3 minutes, 30 seconds left in the third quarter. That was his 10th rebound to go with 16 points and 11 assists at that point.
This marked the 2017-18 rookie of the year's fourth triple-double in a span of 10 games. His sixth triple-doubles rank second in the NBA. Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook has 11.
In addition to his game-high points, Embiid had 12 rebounds for his league-best 34th double-double of the season. The All-Star center also had five assists and one block. Meanwhile, JJ Redick had 20 points, while Bolden had career high of 11 points, three assists and two blocks to go with a career-high tying nine rebounds.
Wesley Matthews paced Dallas with 18 points.
Rookie guard Luka Doncic added 14 points while making just 4 of 16 shots. Former Villanova standout Jalen Brunson, another rookie, had 13 points off the bench.
The Sixers had a commanding 19-point cushion with 11:09 left.
However, the Mavericks pulled within eight points (98-91) on Dennis Smith Jr.'s layup with 1:48 remaining. Korkmaz and Matthews traded 3-pointers on the ensuing possessions as the Mavs closed the gap to seven points.
Then after a Sixers turnover, Doncic buried a 3-pointer to cut the lead to four (101-97). Then Dwight Powell hit a foul shot to pull the Mavs within four points (102-98).
Embiid, however, sank a pair of foul shots with 28.7 seconds left to make it a 104-98 game. Then Korkmaz added a pair to give then an eight-point cushion.
On Wednesday, the Sixers had a commanding 30-point lead before escaping with a 132-127 road victory over the Phoenix Suns.
