LOS ANGELES — The Philadelphia 76ers overcame both the absence of suspended center Joel Embiid and the hot-shooting Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday night and remained the only unbeaten team in the NBA.

Furkan Korkmaz hit a 3-pointer from the right side with 0.4 second left to lift the 76ers to a 129-128 road victory, their fifth win this season.

Damian Lillard of the Blazers missed a long trey at the buzzer.

A 3-pointer by second-year guard Anfernee Simons with 2.2 seconds remaining erased a 126-125 Philadelphia lead, but it wasn’t enough for the Blazers, who fell to 0-2 at home.

The Blazers led by 21 points midway through the third quarter, only to have Philadelphia close to within three points three times early in the fourth quarter and twice down the stretch.

An Al Horford driving dunk then cut the gap to 125-124 with 50.2 seconds remaining.

After CJ McCollum missed a 3 for Portland, Philadelphia got the rebound and called a timeout with 14.8 seconds left. The 76ers went inside and drew a foul with 10.1 seconds remaining. Ben Simmons, who entered the game shooting just 44.4% from the line, made two free throws for the Sixers’ first lead of the game at 126-125.

Lillard scored a game-high 33 points on 11-for-17 shooting (8-for-12 from 3-point range) and small forward Rodney Hood had 25 on 9-of-11 shooting to lead the Blazers. Hood was helped to the locker room late in the game after a collision with Simmons.

Portland shot 57.0% from the field and made a season-high 54.3% (19 of 35) from 3-point range.

Each team was without its usual starting center. Embiid began a two-game suspension for his role in a scuffle with Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns earlier in the week, and Hassan Whiteside of Portland — the offseason replacement while Jusuf Nurkic heals from a broken leg — sat out with a sore left knee.

Philadelphia had to adjust its preferred smashmouth style of play, though the Sixers still relied heavily on points in the paint. Horford started at center and scored a team-high 25 points. Power forward Tobias Harris added 23 points.

The Blazers opened with 6-8 Anthony Tolliver in the middle alongside 6-8 Mario Hezonja at power forward.

Portland’s next game is Monday night at Golden State.

Philadelphia will play the second of four straight road games on Monday at Phoenix.

HORNETS HANG ON TO BEAT DEPLETED WARRIORS
Terry Rozier dropped in a go-ahead basket with 1:09 to play and the visiting Charlotte Hornets survived a frantic finish to hold off the injury-depleted Golden State Warriors 93-87 on Saturday night.

Charlotte’s Dwayne Bacon and Golden State’s Eric Paschall shared game-high scoring honors with 25 points as the Hornets capped a 2-2 Western swing by taking advantage of a Warriors team missing injured stars Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, D’Angelo Russell and Draymond Green.

The Warriors led 69-60 after a three-point play by Paschall with 4:02 remaining in the third quarter, but then ran out of gas on the second night of a back-to-back, scoring just 18 points in the game’s final 16 minutes.

After Rozier’s basket gave Charlotte the lead for good at 88-87, the Warriors had several opportunities to take the lead, but missed their last two shots and mixed in a pair of turnovers.

The Warriors also failed to secure two key rebounds after free throw misses by Rozier and Cody Martin, giving the Hornets extra possessions and additional chances to add to their lead at the line.

Martin made one free throw, Rozier two and Marvin Williams two as the Hornets held on despite a late turnover of their own and three missed foul shots.

Rozier finished with 20 points for Charlotte, which also won at Sacramento on Wednesday night after opening their trip with consecutive losses to the Los Angeles teams.

Rozier also found time for a game-high seven assists.

PJ Washington and Williams added 11 points apiece, and Zeller had 10 for the Hornets, who had lost nine of their previous 10 head-to-heads with the Warriors.

Paschall’s season-best point total came on 10-for-18 shooting for Golden State, which was swept in its home back-to-back, having lost to San Antonio the night before.

Glenn Robinson chipped in with 16 points for the Warriors, who suited up just nine guys, including both their two-way players. Those part-timers — Ky Bowman (16) and Damion Lee (13) — combined for 29 points. — Reuters

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR