The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 125-119 at Wells Fargo Center on Friday to secure their fifth straight win.

Having overcome a 21-point deficit for the victory at home, the 76ers rose to second in the Eastern Conference with a 39-23 record, only two games behind the leading Miami Heat.

Friday night's game didn't belong to Joel Embiid, who missed six of his eight jumpers. Though he was efficient enough to shoot 5 for 6 under the rim, the Cavaliers' huge front court pairs of Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley, Lauri Markkanen and Kevin Love could match Embiid in size and contain his offensive production.

James Harden and Darius Garland exchanged top-level performance as orchestrators. Harden went 6 for 10 in field goals (FGs) and 11 for 12 in free throws to get 25 points and 11 assists for the 76ers. Garland responded with a double-double of 26 points and 19 assists.

The real game-changer for the 76ers on Friday was Tyrese Maxey who had court-high 33 points with incredible FG rate of 66.7 percent (10 for 15) and 3-point rate of 83.3 percent (5 for 6). Like he did in Wednesday's win against the New York Knicks, Maxey exploded in the second half to score 14 and 10 points in the third and fourth quarter, respectively.

"On any given night, it can be any one of us to go off," Harden said after the game, "Tyrese really picked it up for us tonight."
"I don't think we look at it as Big 3, Big 2," Maxey said. "I think we look at it as one unit."

Maxey' averaged 26.8 points in the four games since Harden arrived, almost 10 points higher than that of his before Harden came. It's not surprising that Maxey benefitted from Harden's individual offensive threat and ability, court vision and long pass to launch early offense. However, Maxey's energy and ability to tear defense by driving from the weak side also discouraged the defenders from investing all efforts in trapping Harden and Embiid.

Moreover, Maxey joins hands with Tyrese Thybulle to provide solid enough perimeter defense so Harden can save more strength for the offense.

Cameron Johnson beats the buzzer for Suns

The Phoenix Suns defeated the New York Knicks 115-114 at Footprint Center on Friday after Cameron Johnson made the buzzer-beating 3-pointer for the home team.

Johnson dropped career-high 38 points for the Suns after shooting 9 for 12 from downtown. 21 points of his happened in the last quarter during which he drained six of seven triple attempts. By contrast, the whole team of the Knicks were 1 for 5 at the 3-point line to get only 21 points in his quarter.

"Just thankful that it went down," Johnson said. "I love my guys."

The game remained close after the first half (58-55), and the Knicks gained initiative first by shooting 8 for 10 behind the arc to lead 38-23 in the third quarter. However, the turning point for the Suns also came in this quarter when Johnson fell into conflict with Julius Randle.

Both were called a technical foul at the beginning, but then Randle barreled through the referee to shove Johnson again. As a result, Randle received his second technical and ejection.

Randle already had 25 points, seven rebounds and four assists at that time. His team was leading 86-76 and had no idea what awaited them in the following quarter.

"I had the opportunity to continue playing. And he didn't," Johnson said.

"I told our guys after the interaction that happened – 'OK, we're going to win this game,'" Suns head coach Monty Williams. "We just had to have the mental fortitude to take it one possession at a time. It was amazing to see our group, the huddles, every time out, it never felt like we were out of it."

This was the team's fifth game without Chris Paul and they won three of them, including two that even Devin Booker didn't play in. The Suns are now the league's only team to reach 50 wins (51-12) and their lead seems solid safe over the following Golden State Warriors (43-20) and Memphis Grizzles (43-21).

Other games on Friday (away teams come first):

Indiana Pacers 106-111 Detroit Pistons

Atlanta Hawks 117-114 Washington Wizards

Orlando Magic 103-97 Toronto Raptors

Milwaukee Bucks 118-112 Chicago Bulls

Utah Jazz 90-124 New Orleans Pelicans

Minnesota Timberwolves 138-101 Oklahoma City Thunder

Houston Rockets 101-116 Denver Nuggets