On December 31, Beijing time, the Nets hosted Philadelphia, although Durant Ader returned from isolation, but finally after four quarters of competition, Philadelphia defeated the Nets 110-102 away to win three consecutive wins.
In the first half, although Durant and Harden each scored 13 points, at the same time both of them also had four turnovers, the Nets had as many as 14 mistakes in the half 11 more than Philadelphia, but Brooklyn still trailed by only one point. Embiid fired 22 points at halftime.
In the third quarter, Harden broke through on the right side to play 2+1, and then continued to break through on the left side, Durant shot into the middle distance, Harden made Maxi three-point foul three-free, Durant mid-range and long-range 8 consecutive points to stop Philadelphia. After the timeout, Durant cleverly passed James Johnson to dunk, and then he scored a shot, but Maxi also went into the outside line, and the Nets still trailed by 2 points after the third quarter.
In the final quarter, Harden first hit a three-point shot at the top of the arc, then quickly attacked the three-pointer, and Durant retreated from mid-range to tie again. In the final battle, Harden assisted Durant to reach a triple-double from mid-range, but Philadelphia scored three points to open up the point difference, the Nets could not respond again, embiid killed the game 2+1.
In the whole game, Harden scored 33 points, 14 boards, 10 assists and 6 turnovers on 9 of 20 free throws, 14 free throws, and Durant scored 33 points, 7 boards and 4 assists on 13 of 24 shots. On the Philadelphia side, Embiid had 34 points and 6 boards, Cescuri had 17 points and 6 assists, and Maxi became the hero of the win, scoring 25 points, 7 boards and 3 assists, and hit a key three-pointer in the final quarter.