Cavaliers edge Sixers behind Georges Niang's game-high 25 points

CLEVELAND — Georges Niang pump-faked to get Paul Reed in the air, then splashed the 3-pointer and screamed as he strutted back to the bench for a timeout.

It was a burst of emotions the 76ers are plenty familiar with. But Friday night, Niang burned his former team, dropping a game-high 25 points off the bench to help lift the Cavaliers to a 117-114 Friday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

Niang went 5 of 8 from beyond the arc, propelling Cleveland to a down-to-the-wire victory in a matchup between two sputtering teams trying to gain traction before the playoffs. The Sixers entered Friday in eighth place in the Eastern Conference standings, a half-game behind the seventh-place Miami Heat (who defeated the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday) and 1 1/2 games behind the Indiana Pacers (who beat the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday).

Cleveland, meanwhile, had lost four of its previous five games entering Friday, slipping to fourth place in the East standings with All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell sidelined with a knee injury and broken nose. Mitchell returned Friday, finishing with 12 points including the game-sealing free throws.

On a night when Sixers All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey went 7 of 26 from the floor — including missing a potential tying step-back 3-pointer before the buzzer — to finish with 16 points and 11 assists, Kyle Lowry’s team-high 23 points marked his scoring high since joining the Sixers off the buyout market. The 38-year-old’s jumper cut what had been an eight-point Cavaliers advantage to 104-101 with five minutes, three seconds remaining, then later poked away a ball that Maxey took the other way to put the Sixers up, 113-112, with 39.1 seconds to play.

But Cleveland big man Evan Mobley answered with a corner 3-pointer, before Mo Bamba failed to tie the game with 18.8 seconds to play by going 1 of 2 from the free-throw line before Mitchell’s final foul shots.

Tobias Harris (21 points, seven rebounds), Bamba (14 points on 6-of-7 shooting, seven rebounds) and Reed (12 points, seven rebounds, blocks) also finished in double figures.

The Sixers took an 87-85 lead into the fourth quarter, after Buddy Hield buried a 3-pointer in the third frame’s final minute. The teams traded leads through the fourth quarter’s initial three minutes, until Niang gave the Cavaliers a 98-94 cushion at the 8:40 mark. Another familiar face pushed that advantage to 102-94 a minute later, when Marcus Morris Sr. — the North Philly native whom the Sixers acquired in the James Harden blockbuster trade but then dealt at the deadline — buried a 3-pointer and slammed his arm in celebration in front of the Sixers bench.

The Sixers trailed 57-55 at halftime, despite shooting 38.3% from the floor. Harris anchored the offense, scoring 14 of his points before the break. In the first half, the Sixers also outrebounded the Cavaliers, 24-18, parlayed eight Cleveland turnovers into 10 points and 14-5 edge in free-throw attempts.

The Sixers will conclude this two-game road trip on Sunday at the Toronto Raptors, in a homecoming of sorts for coach Nick Nurse and Lowry. The Sixers will then host a Tuesday matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder, who sat a half-game back of the top spot in the Western Conference entering Friday.