Nuggets escape short-handed 76ers with Joel Embiid out again in Denver

One of the memorable high points of the Nuggets’ championship defense so far was their shocking, shorthanded win at the star-studded Clippers in November.

They were almost victims of an inverted version Saturday.

Without their three best players, the Philadelphia 76ers took the Nuggets to the brink of a season-low point before Denver scrapped out a 111-105 victory in its first home game in two weeks.

“It was nice to have an arena cheering for us, for once,” Jamal Murray said.

Tied at 96 with 4:30 remaining, the Nuggets (32-15) scored seven unanswered points to claim the lead for good. Then Michael Porter Jr., battling a second-half uncharacteristic shooting rut, drained his most important 3-pointer of the game to double a 104-101 lead with 1:17 remaining. Playing after a gruesome poke in the eye Thursday, Nikola Jokic led Denver with 26 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists.

Ball Arena was sent into a delirious mixture of disappointment and glee when Joel Embiid, not even mentioned in Philadelphia’s pregame injury report, was unexpectedly ruled out 10 minutes before the opening tip due to knee soreness. During pauses in the national anthem, fans let the defending MVP hear it, unleashing comments into the dark silence such as “Embiid is a coward!” When he joined his team’s bench wearing street clothes during a fourth-quarter timeout, Denver greeted him with another chorus of boos.

The last time Embiid played a road game against the Nuggets was Nov. 8, 2019, when Jokic made a game-winning shot with 1.2 seconds left.

“We’re lucky to come out of here with a win today, to be honest,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said, adding he thought the team’s play was affected by the “letdown” of Embiid being out.

“We have to do a better job of handling those situations,” he said.

The 76ers had already announced Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris weren’t available by the time Embiid’s warm-up routine reportedly went poorly, so not only was the NBA’s “rivalry week” headliner spoiled — Jokic vs. Embiid — but so was the competitiveness of the Denver vs. Philadelphia matchup as a whole, supposedly.

That turned out not to be the case. If Embiid had played, the Nuggets might have been in for an especially rough afternoon. They played like a team still trying to catch up on sleep after a five-game road trip, losing in the areas of the matchup where they should have dominated in the absence of an MVP center. Jokic attempted only five shots in the first half while the Sixers outscored Denver 34-22 in the paint and shot 74% from 2-point range.