Embiid leads 76ers to 108-112 triumph over Nets, provokes collective brawl

New York — Cameroonian power forward Joel Embiid returned to the Philadelphia Sixers as the star of Game 4 of the first round NBA playoffs of the Eastern Conference on Saturday, leading his team to win 108-112 away at the Brooklyn Nets .

Embiid did it all at the Barclays Center , where he contributed a 31-points double-double with 16 rebounds, gave the key assist that allowed his teammate power forward Mike Scott to score the triple that put the Sixers ahead on the scoreboard with 18 seconds to go and provoked a heated brawl that ended with the ejections of Jimmy Butler and Jared Dudley .

But the most important thing for the Sixers was to take a 3-1 lead in their first-round series with the Brooklyn Nets.

The fifth game will be played next Tuesday at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia when the Sixers will have the opportunity to qualify for the semifinals for the second consecutive season.

With 7:46 minutes to go in the third quarter, Embiid fouled the Nets’ center, Jarrett Allen , which was eventually ruled a Flagrant 1, when Dudley started a scuffle with Embiid, causing Butler to attack the Nets’ player and both of them to go to the ground among the first row of spectators along with Australian point guard Ben Simmons .

In the end, after the situation came back under control, the referees decided on the expulsion of Dudley and Butler, both with technical fouls and the Flagrant 1 foul for Embiid. The Sixers ended up dominating the rest of the match 41-51.

The contribution of the All-Star power forward from Cameroon, who did not play in the third game for suffering from pain in his left knee, was decisive.

Embiid scored eight consecutive points in the fourth period after the Nets had gone seven points clear and was the key to the Sixers’ comeback.

Power forward Tobias Harris was also decisive in the Sixers’ game providing 24 points, eight rebounds and six assists.

Australian point guard Ben Simmons finished with 15 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, while Mike Scott scored eight goals and also captured eight balls under the hoops.

Caris LeVert, who was placed in the starting line-up, scored 25 points, while D’Angelo Russell and Allen each scored 21.

Reserve point guard Spencer Dinwiddie scored 18 points, but forward Joe Harris , the NBA’s three-point leader, missed all three shots from outside the perimeter and in the two games in Brooklyn he only scored one triple.

Dudley, who also came out as a starter and scored eight points and five rebounds before his ejection came.

Without his presence, Embiid began to dominate the offensive game of the Sixers, who drew up the decisive play when there were 18 seconds left when Embiid received the ball under the hoop of the Nets, who dished it to Mike Scott for a wide open three-pointer in the corner.

In the next possession Allen lost the ball marked by three defenders of the Sixers and Harris sentenced by scoring one of the two foul shots.