76ers Survive Late Pistons Push Thanks To Heroics From Jaylen Brown For Eighth Win Of Season
Philadelphia 76ers guard Jaylen Brown 7 controls the ball Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher Imagn Images
It was all Jaylen Brown in the Motor City Wednesday evening.
As the NBA season continues on the 76ers continue to be one of the NBA’s best team so far on the young season. They currently sit with the top record in the Eastern Conference and are tied for the best record in the whole league, with just one loss this year.
That loss came at the hands of one of the fellow top teams in the league, the Detroit Pistons, and thanks to their schedule, Philadelphia had a chance to avenge the loss they suffered 10 days prior.
It wasn’t easy, as the Pistons did their best to mount the comeback, but thanks to an unbelievable performance from Jaylen Brown, the 76ers managed to pull off the 112-106 victory. The win improves Philadelphia to 4-0 on the road to open the season, the first time they’ve accomplished this feat since 2001.
Brown was unguarble all night, dropping 30 points on 11-for-19 shooting, while also grabbing seven boards and a late-game clutch block. Joel Embiid had his fourth double-double of the season, scoring 26 while grabbing 15 rebounds, while LeBron James finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists.
Birthday boy Tyrese Maxey had his streak of 25 points or more to open a season come to an end, as despite scoring 11 points in the fourth quarter, a rough first half of only two total points caused him to finish with a season-low 19.
As the game tipped off, Cade Cunningham and Duncan Robinson, who killed the 76ers in the teams’ previous matchup, knocked down Detroit’s first two shots of the night.
For the 76ers, Jaylen Brown got the scoring going while a VJ Edgecombe three and a LeBron James pull-up jumper kept Philadelphia even with Detroit. However, the Pistons jumped out to a lead after drilling back-to-back-to-back shots from Cunningham, John Collins and Paul Reed, and Robinson drilled a three to make it a six-point deficit for Philadelphia.
Down 17-11, the 76ers didn’t let that deficit last long, as they bolted out to an 18-4 run to close out the quarter and take the lead. Six points from Joel Embiid and a bucket from Dean Wade got the run started, and even after a three from Kevin Huerter, six points from Brown to close out the quarter, including a deep buzzer-beating three, gave Philadelphia a 29-21 lead after one.
At the start of the second quarter, Brown kept his hot hand going with a bucket, but the next points for the 76ers came from a milestone field goal from LeBron James. James drove to the lane and knocked down a layup for his 16,000th field goal of his career, becoming the first player in NBA history to reach that milestone.
James had the hot hand scoring, but his even hotter hand came on dissing dimes as he found Adem Bona on back-to-back possessions, while Brown continued to keep his hot hand up, drilling a pair of threes to push the 76ers’ lead to a game-high 17.
Philadelphia’s hot stretch eventually cooled down, and because of that, Detroit began to heat up, going on a 9-0 run to cut the game back to single digits. With two minutes to go until the half, Brown and Embiid began answering the Pistons’ attack at the rim, hitting clutch free throws to put the 76ers up 56-42 at the break.
Cunningham hit his first two shots of the half at the start of the third quarter, while Robinson made another three. Edgecombe and Embiid answered back with six combined points, while after a turnaround jumper from Brown, back-to-back threes from Tyrese Maxey and James put the 76ers back up 14.
However, Detroit wouldn’t go away as Cunningham and Robinson continued to rally the Pistons throughout the quarter, with Cunningham doing the tough work at the rim and Robinson from beyond the arc.
They managed to get the deficit down to single digits again with under four to play in the third, but back-to-back threes from Maxey and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and three more points from Brown made it 89-75 heading into the final 12 minutes of action.
At the start of the fourth, the Pistons began mounting a comeback. The 76ers shots stopped drolling, and Ausar Thompson got rolling with four points from him, buckets from Cunningham and Reed, and a long three from Kevin Huerter to make it a nine-point game.
Back-and-forth, both teams went as the quarter began winding down, as Maxey tried to grow the lead with a three, but was answered by one from Daniss Jenkins. An Embiid bucket was answered with five points from Robinson as Philadelphia’s lead was down to just eight with just over two minutes left.
A foul from Edgecombe gave Cunningham two free throws and, a possession later, a layup from the Pistons point guard made it 106-102 with a minute to play. A missed three from Embiid gave the Pistons a chance to make it a one-possession game, but a clutch block from Brown on a Cunningham three gave the 76ers the ball back and forced Detroit to play the free-throw game.
Embiid hit the first two, but on the other end, Robinson was fouled shooting a three, but could only hit two of three to keep it a four-point game. Maxey was able to hit the first set of free throws, and following a dunk from Collins, hit another pair of free throws to ice the game, with the 76ers winning 112-106.
Matt Brown
Matt has been a Philadelphia sports fan all his life and spent four years at Penn State University majoring in Broadcast Journalism and minoring in Sports Studies. He previously covered Penn State’s field hockey, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball teams while writing for a Penn State blog called Onward State. He has now covered the Phillies, Eagles, and Sixers for Philly Sports Reports since October 2024 and wants to pursue a career in Sports Journalism.
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