76ers hold off Magic, keep hopes of avoiding play-in alive - ESPN

PHILADELPHIA — Surviving both a Joel Embiid injury scare and a fourth-quarter push by the Orlando Magic, the Philadelphia 76ers took a significant step toward escaping the Eastern Conference play-in picture with a 125-113 victory over the Magic here at Wells Fargo Center Friday night.

Philadelphia (46-35) has now ripped off seven wins in a row and moved into a tie with the Magic — now losers of three straight — for sixth place in the Eastern Conference standings with just Sunday's games left to be played. But all of that quickly faded into the background late in the second quarter, when Embiid — playing in his fifth game since returning from a left meniscus procedure last month — came up limping and grabbing at that left knee after making a basket.

But after immediately walking to the locker room, Embiid returned for the start of the second half and hit a 3-pointer, eventually finishing with 32 points, 13 rebounds and 7 assists in 32 minutes. He was aided by his co-star, Tyrese Maxey, who finished with 28 points, including a couple of buckets in a row inside the final five minutes after Orlando had gotten within six points to give the 76ers the breathing room needed to pull this one out.

Friday's game here, however, was one of several across both conferences with massive ramifications for how the playoff picture will shake out, as Friday's play opened with only three seeds having been decided with just two days of regular-season basketball left to be played.

The game with the biggest immediate impact on what happened here Friday was in Cleveland, where the Cavaliers got 33 points from Donovan Mitchell and 29 points and 13 rebounds from Jarrett Allen to beat the Indiana Pacers and give themselves a shot at moving as high