The triple take: 76ers 113, Spurs 111 (OT) – San Antonio Express-News

Simmons’ tap-in of a Joel Embiid miss at the overtime buzzer gave the 76ers a 113-111 victory at the AT&T Center the Spurs came close to stealing.

Embiid had 34 points and 12 rebounds for the 76ers (42-21), but it was Simmons’ second made field goal of the night that proved the game-winner.

The loss came two nights after the Spurs squandered a 32-point lead at Boston in dropping another overtime game 143-140.

The game was the seventh of the season to go to OT for the Spurs — one off the club record of eight set in 1983-84 — and the third in the past four contests.

The Spurs did good work to get the game to overtime, although it might come back to bite them later in the week.

With the Spurs kicking off a stretch of five games in seven nights Sunday — and playing again Monday night in Utah — coach Gregg Popovich opted to rest DeMar DeRozan and Jakob Poeltl.

Dejounte Murray sat out with a sore knee. Derrick White and Trey Lyles were both already out with ankle injuries.

The Spurs used a patchwork lineup that included the first career start for rookie point guard Tre Jones and Rudy Gay’s first start since 2019, as well as the second start of the season for center Drew Eubanks.

Strung together with bailing wire, the makeshift Spurs fell into a 17-point hole in the first quarter, then steadily began punching back.

The Spurs never led, but rallied to tie it on three occasions late in the fourth quarter.

In the extra period, Gay knotted the score a final time with a swooping layup with 19.1 seconds remaining.

At that point, double-OT was looking like the best-case scenario for the exhausted Spurs (31-32).

They forced Embiid into a misfire in the waning moments, but failed to secure the rebound.

Simmons leaped past Keldon Johnson to tip in the game-winner.

The Spurs got 23 points off the bench from Lonnie Walker IV and 17 from Gorgui Dieng in his best game since joining the Spurs.

Johnson added 19 points for the Spurs, including a slew of big buckets in the fourth quarter and OT, but couldn’t keep Simmons off the glass at the horn.

For the Spurs’ trouble, they get a chance to end a losing streak with a pair of games Monday and Wednesday in Utah, against the NBA-leading Jazz.

Here are three takeaways from another gut-punch at the AT&T Center on Sunday:

At least some of the Spurs will be rested in Utah

The overtime games are beginning to pile up for the Spurs. Six of their OT affairs have come since the All-Star break, at a time the Spurs were scheduled to close the season with an already incredible 40 games in 68 nights.

It has left Popovich with the difficult task of managing veterans’ minutes, while minutes keep getting added to the tail end of games.

Making matters worse, the Spurs haven’t been able to win often in extra periods, going 1-6 in overtime games this far.

The good news as the Spurs travel to Utah is two-fold. First, the Jazz are expected to be without star guards Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley for at least Monday’s matchup.

Second, some of the Spurs’ best players will be well-rested.

DeRozan and Poeltl are expected to be back in the lineup against the Jazz after a one-game breather, with Murray likely to join them in uniform.

While the five players who topped 30 minutes against Philadelphia might show signs of fatigue, those who remained in street clothes should be fresh enough to face Utah.

Dieng fights for playing time

Having opened his Spurs career with a sprained shoulder March 31, Dieng has been the odd man out of Popovich’s center rotation.

Eubanks has been the top backup for Poeltl, and the duo has been a productive one.

With Poeltl resting Sunday, Eubanks slid to the starting lineup and Dieng became the first big man off the bench.

He showed out with his best performance since scoring 19 points for Memphis on Feb. 1 in a victory over the Spurs.

Dieng made 6 of 7 field goals, including 3 of 4 3-pointers, had four rebounds, three assists and two steals, and played credible enough defense when assigned to the beast that is Embiid.

It’s difficult to know if Dieng will get minutes once Poeltl returns. Sunday’s game marked only the third time in nine appearances with the Spurs that Dieng reached the double-digit minutes mark.

With his 3-point accuracy, Dieng does give the Spurs’ big man rotation a different look when he is in the game.

Whether it is enough to take playing time from Eubanks — who has also performed well — remains to be seen.

Spurs could have used their clutch king

The Spurs’ offense went a little haywire near the end of regulation and into overtime, with good looks becoming harder and harder to come by.

Give the 76ers credit for ratcheting up the defensive pressure.

The Spurs also might have found use for one of the NBA’s top clutch scorers, had he not been on the inactive list.

DeRozan ranks second in the NBA in clutch points with 129. Portland’s Damian Lillard is first with 149.

When games are on the line, DeRozan is the player the Spurs have come to rely upon to take and make big baskets.

With DeRozan unavailable, the Spurs seemed to tense up down the stretch Sunday.

The Spurs managed only three field goals in the final 4:44 — tough bailout 3-pointers from Gay and Johnson, and an equally tough putback by Johnson.

They scored four points total in OT.

Had DeRozan been around to save the day, the Spurs might have pulled this one out.

jmcdonald@express-news.net

Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN