Cleveland led by 29 points in the second quarter on Thursday night. The Cavaliers had been in that position 155 times in franchise history and won all 155. Philadelphia had faced a hole that big 156 times and lost every one.
Then the 76ers won 114-106.
NBA teams had won 466 consecutive regular-season games while holding a lead of that size. Cleveland blew the largest lead in its history, in a season opener, in a building that spent the first half booing the home team.
The First Half Was Indefensible
Cleveland scored 35 points in the first quarter. Philadelphia scored 18. The Sixers turned the ball over six times in the opening six minutes, shot 2-for-13 from three, and watched the Cavaliers close the period on a 24-7 run.
Donovan Mitchell had 22 points by halftime on nine shots. Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley combined for 29 first-half points on 18 attempts. The break arrived with Cleveland up 69-45.
Nick Nurse described his locker room at halftime as pissed. Tyrese Maxey said he told his teammates it was time to see what they were made of, then expanded on it afterward.
“Are we going to be some front-runners and only be happy when stuff is good?” Maxey said. “Or when stuff is bad, are we going to fight and be resilient? And we did that.”
Maxey and Embiid Took It Back
Philadelphia outscored Cleveland 37-21 in the third quarter and 69-37 in the second half. The Sixers committed two turnovers after halftime. Two.
Maxey finished with 32 points on 12-of-23 shooting across 42 minutes, tying Mitchell for the game high. Joel Embiid scored 24 on 8-of-16 and logged 34 minutes with no visible restriction, which is the detail that should interest Philadelphia most. He is targeting at least 60 games this season after a start-stop 2025-26. His 16-foot jumper over Allen with 6:54 left in the fourth gave the Sixers their first lead at 96-95, the last of seven straight points he scored himself. A 15-0 run pushed it to 104-95.
Jaylen Brown had four points at halftime and 21 for the game, 10 of them in the fourth quarter. LeBron James put up 17 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and three steals in his home debut. All five Philadelphia starters scored in double figures, and the starters produced 64 of the team’s 69 second-half points.
Be Precise About the Record
Plenty of coverage is not. This is the largest comeback in 76ers history in the NBA’s play-by-play era, which means since 1997-98. In-game margins before that are not systematically tracked, so the phrase “franchise record” needs that qualifier attached. It is only the 10th time in that era that any team has erased a deficit of 29 or more and won. It is not an NBA record.
What is clean and uncomplicated: this was the largest comeback of LeBron James’s career. He is 41, in his 24th season, playing on a two-year, $8 million contract he signed in July after telling the Lakers he would not be back. Philadelphia is his fourth franchise.
“It was everything that I dreamed of and more,” James said. “Got the boos, that was amazing. We deserved it.”
Cleveland Has a Real Problem
Kenny Atkinson’s team reached the Eastern Conference finals last season and went 4-0 against Philadelphia in 2025-26. On Thursday it scored 16 points in the fourth quarter. Mitchell had 30 through three quarters and two in the fourth, and missed two free throws with 1:19 to play. James Harden turned it over six times, four of them in the final two quarters. Allen scored 14 in the first half and nothing after it.
“They upped their pressure and physicality. It was pretty clear,” Atkinson said. “We did not handle it well.”
Philadelphia is 2-0, having also beaten the defending champion Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 20. Cleveland is 0-1 and will be answering for this one in April.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
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