PHILADELPHIA — Paul George scored 30 points, Tyrese Maxey had 29 and the short-handed Philadelphia 76ers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 132-129 on Friday night to end a seven-game losing streak.

Cleveland lost its second straight to drop into a tie for the NBA lead with Oklahoma City at 36-8. Philadelphia is 16-27.

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Donovan Mitchell scored 37 points for Cleveland, and Ty Jerome had a career-high 33, making all eight of his 3-point tries.

READ: NBA: Struggling 76ers dealing with rash of injuries to key players

Sixers take down East No. 1 Cavs 🙌🔔

PG: 30 PTS, 6 3PM, 5 REB
Maxey: 29 PTS, 4 3PM, 7 AST, 2 STL, 2 BLK pic.twitter.com/VzgVhWerWD

— NBA (@NBA) January 25, 2025

Philadelphia star center Joel Embiid missed his 10th straight game because of a left knee injury. He also was ruled out by coach Nick Nurse at Chicago on Saturday night.

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Jerome’s second straight 3-pointer put Cleveland up 116-110 with 6:17 remaining, but the 76ers ran off 13 consecutive points to go up seven. The Cavaliers had the ball with a chance to tie it, but Jerome turned it over on an inbounds play.

Kelly Oubre Jr. added 22 points for the 76ers. Darius Garland had 26 for Cleveland.

Takeaways

Cavaliers: Cleveland showed it can be beaten by a hot-shooting team from the perimeter.

76ers: Though it hasn’t happened much this season, Philadelphia proved it can win against the league’s top teams without Embiid.

READ: NBA: Bucks trounce short-handed 76ers

Key moment

Eric Gordon hit a go-ahead 3-pointer for Philadelphia that made it 117-116, and capped a 13-0 run over 2:58 with another 3 with 3:19 to play to make it 123-116.

Key stat

The teams combined for 46 3-pointers.

Up next

Both teams are back in action Saturday night. Cleveland hosts the Rockets in a rematch of the Cavs’ 109-108 loss at Houston on Wednesday night. Philadelphia is at Chicago.