Jaylen Brown poured in a season-high 30 points and Joel Embiid added 26 points and 15 rebounds on Wednesday night as the Philadelphia 76ers held off the Detroit Pistons 112-106 at Little Caesars Arena. The 76ers vs Pistons victory keeps Philadelphia alone atop the Eastern Conference standings at 8-1 and improves the team to 4-0 on the road.
Playing through knee soreness, Brown shot 11-for-19 from the field, 3-for-5 from three-point range and 5-for-7 at the foul line while grabbing seven rebounds in 37 minutes, Metro Philadelphia reported. He scored 23 of his 30 points in the first half, picking up the scoring load while Tyrese Maxey sat with three first-half fouls on his 26th birthday. Brown knocked down a buzzer-beating three-pointer to give Philadelphia a 29-21 lead after the opening quarter and later added a corner triple to stretch the margin to 48-31 in the second period. Through nine games, Brown is shooting 45.7 percent from beyond the arc, up from 34.7 percent last season.
Detroit (6-2), which sits second in the East and handed Philadelphia its only loss of the season in late October, refused to fold after trailing by as many as 17 points in the third quarter. Duncan Robinson hit a three-pointer and Cade Cunningham made two free throws before driving for a layup to trim the Sixers’ lead to 106-102 late in the fourth. Brown answered by blocking a Cunningham three-point attempt, and Embiid sank two free throws to lock up Philadelphia’s first 4-0 road start in 25 years, according to PHLY Sports.
76ers vs Detroit Pistons Match Player Stats
Embiid logged 33 minutes and played down the stretch in the fourth quarter after sitting out the final period of Monday’s win over the Chicago Bulls on a 25-minute restriction for right foot plantar fasciitis, NBC Sports Philadelphia reported. While NBC Sports Philadelphia and Metro Philadelphia credited Embiid with a season-best 15 rebounds (eight in the first half), PHLY Sports listed him with 14 boards. The center anchored a 10-0 first-quarter run after Detroit opened 7-for-11 from the floor to take an early 17-11 lead, converting a put-back layup off a high-low pass from LeBron James and hitting two free throws to put Philadelphia ahead.
Embiid’s perimeter shooting slump continued as he went 0-for-3 from deep, dropping him to 3-for-26 (11.5 percent) on the season without a made three-pointer since the second game of the year. He was also assessed a technical foul late in the second quarter following an officials’ review for initiating a dead-ball altercation with Detroit’s Tolu Smith.
James recorded a double-double with 13 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, findingEmbiid and backup center Adem Bona for interior buckets throughout the first half. Maxey missed his first four shots and entered halftime with two points before scoring 17 in the second half to finish with 19 points and seven assists. As a team, Philadelphia shot 39-for-86 from the floor and 25-for-28 at the free-throw line while winning the rebounding battle 48-40 and holding the Pistons to four offensive rebounds over 48 minutes.
Robinson paced Detroit with 27 points, and Cunningham finished with 26 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds. A third-quarter alley-oop dunk by John Collins briefly trimmed Philadelphia’s lead to single digits before Embiid tipped in his own miss and Maxey connected from three-point range to push the advantage back to 84-68.
Sixers Injury Updates and Road Schedule
Bona scored five first-half points, including two second-quarter dunks set up by James, earning an extended first-half stint from head coach Nick Nurse. However, Bona went to the locker room early in the fourth quarter with what Nurse described postgame as neck soreness.
Before tipoff in Detroit, Nurse also updated reporters on forward Dominick Barlow, who remains sidelined. According to Sixers Wire’s Ky Carlin, Nurse said “it’ll be another 10 to 12 days before they kind of clear (Barlow) for getting on the court to see where he is.”
The 8-1 start matches Philadelphia’s opening nine-game mark from the 2023-24 campaign, which was Nurse’s first season coaching the franchise. The 76ers stay on the road to face the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night.