CLEVELAND — Mission accomplished.
The 76ers were determined to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers for two reasons: They wanted to avenge this season’s previous two losses to the struggling Cavs. They also wanted a winning record on their six-game road trip.
They did both, defeating the Cavs, 114-94, Thursday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
The Sixers (33-15) snapped their two-game skid and went 4-2 on the road trip against the New York Knicks, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Denver Nuggets, and Cavs. The win also marked the Sixers’ first win against the Cavs (17-31) in this season’s three meetings. It was their first time beating Cleveland in four tries dating back to last season.
For the Cavs, this marked their fourth straight loss and their ninth loss in their last 13 games.
Sixth man Shake Milton led the Sixers with a game-high 27 points while making 5 of 7 3-pointers. Seth Curry added 19 points while making 5 of 10 3s. Dwight Howard added 18 points and 15 rebounds off the bench.
Tobias Harris (12) and Danny Green (11) were the other double-digit scorers for the Sixers.
Collin Sexton paced the Cavs with 24 points and Kevin Love had 13.
Ben Simmons had another subpar shooting performance.
The three-time All-Star missed a 5-foot hook shot on his first attempt. He followed by making a dunk, missing a 4-foot layup and making a layup. Simmons, however, went on to miss his next seven shots. All of those misses were around the basket except for an 11-footer. Only one of his attempts came after intermission.
Simmons finished with five points on 2-for-11 shooting to go with 13 rebounds, five assists and two turnovers.
Luckily for the Sixers, his teammates took up the scoring slack.
With Joel Embiid sidelined, the Sixers went back to starting 6-foot-7 power forward Mike Scott at center.
The move made a lot of sense due the 6-8 Love starting at center for the Cavs after missing the last nine games with right calf soreness. Thursday marked just his fifth game this season.
Tony Bradley started at center in six games that Embiid missed. However, the Sixers shipped Bradley to Oklahoma City last Thursday in exchange for point guard George Hill. Scott started that night’s game and the next. Then Howard started Tuesday’s game against the Nuggets.
This marked the 10th game that Embiid missed with a bone bruise in his left knee. The league MVP candidate is expected to return Saturday against the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Wells Fargo Center.
Doc Rivers was asked what some of the things the Sixers tripped on during Embiid’s absence that could help them moving forward.
“We really didn’t change much,” said Rivers, whose squad went 7-3 without Embiid. “I just think, I guess the stretch of playing without him, other guys have kind of found their niche a little bit.
“When he’s off the floor, I think we’ll have a better idea of what to run. Obviously, having him in makes our second unit deeper. So that will help as well.”
But on this night, the first quarter turned into a 3-point contest between Love and Curry.
Love scored all of his points in the first quarter on 4-for-8 shooting, including making 3 of 5 3-pointers. Curry had 11 points for the Sixers on 4-for-7 shooting, while making 3 of 5 3s.
Both players slowed down a little bit the second quarter. Love failed to score a point while missing his two shots. Curry scored five points on 2-for-6 shooting. But Milton (eight second-quarter points) and Howard (five points, four rebounds) took up the slack, enabling the Sixers to take a 58-56 halftime lead.
