29 Points Down, the Sixers Beat the Cavaliers 114-106 Behind Tyrese Maxey's 32

Photo: NBA.com. Tyrese Maxey, Philadelphia 76ers guard.

Joel Embiid's 16-foot jumper over Jarrett Allen with 6:54 left Thursday night put the 76ers ahead for the first time, 96-95, and they never trailed again in a 114-106 win over the Cavaliers. Philadelphia came back from 29 down, its largest comeback of the play-by-play era, and won the second half 69-37 after Nick Nurse changed who guarded Cleveland's middle pick-and-roll.

Tyrese Maxey scored 32 on 12-of-23 in 42 minutes. Embiid had 24, Jaylen Brown 21, LeBron James 17 with 10 rebounds. Donovan Mitchell matched Maxey with 32 for Cleveland, and 30 of them came before the fourth quarter.

How the hole got to 29

The first half was ugly from the jump. Philadelphia turned it over 11 times in the first 13 minutes, per NBA.com, and Cleveland led 17-0 in points off turnovers by then. By the break the Sixers had 15 turnovers, their most in a half since January 2024 per ESPN. Mitchell's 7-footer off a Harden feed with 1:12 left in the second made it 69-40. The Sixers went into the break down 69-45, and the crowd loudly booed as the half ended, per ESPN.

That halftime lead tied the biggest the Cavs have ever carried out of the first half of a season opener, per ESPN. Brown had four points.

The switch at halftime

Nurse's fix was on the ball screen. Cleveland ran 27 direct picks in the first half and got 1.08 points a trip on them, according to GeniusIQ data cited by ESPN. In the second half the Cavs ran 20 and got 0.56.

Cleveland shot 25-of-49 in the first half and 14-of-38 in the second, by the Dyme's count of the ESPN play-by-play. The Cavs had six turnovers before the break and 15 after it. Philadelphia went the other way, 15 turnovers in the first half and two in the second.

The response started fast. Brown hit a three off a Maxey pass nine seconds into the third, VJ Edgecombe and James each finished and-ones, and Embiid scored off a James feed. That was 11 points in 78 seconds. By 3:59 of the third it was a one-possession game, and the Sixers won the quarter 37-21.

The run came with LeBron on the bench

Harden's 25-foot pull-up at 8:37 of the fourth put Cleveland up 95-89, and Philadelphia called timeout. Maxey came back in for James. James sat until 3:32.

The Sixers scored the next 15 points with James on the bench. Embiid scored seven straight on a turnaround, the and-one free throw, a floater and the go-ahead jumper. Brown followed with six straight: a 20-foot fadeaway, a driving layup, a 10-foot pull-up. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope picked off a Harden pass, and Maxey finished it for 104-95.

Cleveland went 4:47 without a point, from Harden's three at 8:37 to Peyton Watson's 13-footer at 3:50. Over that stretch the Cavs missed six shots and turned it over three times, and Mitchell sat for nearly two minutes of it. Adem Bona was at center for the last two and a half minutes of the run after Embiid checked out at 6:32.

James finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds in the biggest comeback win of his career, per AP.

Maxey set the tone

Maxey said he challenged the room at halftime. "Are we going to be some front-runners and only be happy when stuff is good? Or when stuff is bad, are we going to fight and be resilient?" he told reporters, per ESPN.

He backed it up with 17 second-half points. In the fourth, Harden grabbed his jersey, Maxey turned and shoved him, and the two went nose-to-nose before they were separated, per AP. His old teammate finished minus-17 with six turnovers. Harden scored 10 in the fourth, but two of those turnovers came in the final 4:12, including an offensive foul at 2:12 that the Sixers won on a coach's challenge.

The starters scored 64 of Philadelphia's 69 second-half points, per NBA.com. Edgecombe added 11 points, seven rebounds, six assists and three steals. Anfernee Simons, the Dyme's preseason Sixth Man pick, went 0-of-4 from the floor in 17 minutes and was minus-24.

Cleveland's fourth quarter

Mitchell's fourth: 0-of-3 from the floor and two turnovers. Down four at 1:19, he missed both free throws. He made two free throws with 27.2 seconds left, his only points of the quarter, per the ESPN play-by-play. Cleveland had never blown a lead that big before, per Sporting News.

"They upped their pressure and physicality. It was pretty clear," Kenny Atkinson said, per NBA.com. "We did not handle it well."

The Cavs are 0-1 and open at home Saturday against Brooklyn. They reached the Eastern Conference finals last season, per NBA.com, and lost a 29-point road lead in their first game.

What 2-0 says about Philadelphia

Two games in, Philadelphia has beaten the defending champion Knicks on ring night and the Cavs from 29 down. Philadelphia is in The Dyme's East top six. Asked about comebacks like this one, James said, laughing, "You don't want to rely on that," per ESPN.

The Sixers play back-to-back home games this weekend, Saturday against Milwaukee and Sunday against Detroit, per AP.

Photo: NBA.com / Getty Images. Jaylen Brown, Tyrese Maxey, LeBron James and Joel Embiid, from NBA.com's coverage of the 76ers' 114-106 win over the Cavaliers.

Sources: ESPN box score and play-by-play. ESPN, Kris Rhim. AP game story. AP, Maxey and Harden. NBA.com, Jeff Zillgitt. Sporting News, biggest comebacks. Half splits, the 15-0 run window and lineup timing are Dyme counts from the ESPN play-by-play.