Jaylen Brown scores 30, blocks Cunningham late as 76ers beat Pistons 112-106

Jaylen Brown chose a good night for his best scoring game of the season. The forward scored a season-high 30 points and then made the play that ended it, blocking Cade Cunningham's pull-up 3-pointer with 37 seconds left. That shot would have cut the lead to three, and instead the Philadelphia 76ers held on for a 112-106 win over the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night, according to the Associated Press recap carried by ESPN.

The win avenged Philadelphia's only loss of the season, a 106-93 home defeat to Detroit, and evened the season series at 1-1. It also matters in the standings. The Sixers are now 8-1, first in the Eastern Conference, and they beat the Central Division leaders on their own floor. Detroit fell to 6-2.

Philadelphia won it without much from its leading scorer. Tyrese Maxey had a season-low 19 points on 5-of-16 shooting. He had scored at least 26 in every other game, and he came in averaging 29 a night, behind only Luka Doncic and Stephen Curry in the league. Joel Embiid filled the gap with 26 points and 15 rebounds, and LeBron James had 13 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. FOX 29 Philadelphia noted that Detroit's comeback started from 17 points down.

James also set a record. His left-handed runner early in the second quarter made him the first player in NBA history with 16,000 made field goals, passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 15,837. The 41-year-old had some of his sharpest passing in that same quarter, including a no-look feed and a left-handed delivery to Adem Bona that led to a three-point play. Embiid picked up a technical foul late in the first half after a review showed he started a shoving match with Pistons center Tolu Smith.

Detroit had two big scorers. Duncan Robinson scored 27 and Cunningham added 26 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds, but the Pistons outscored Philadelphia 31-21 in the fourth quarter and still came up short. CBS Sports described it as a late rally the Sixers held off.

What it means for Friday in Cleveland

The Sixers have now won five straight and are 4-0 on the road. Their next game is Friday at the Cleveland Cavaliers, streaming on Prime Video. Philadelphia beat Cleveland 114-106 at home earlier this season. The Cavaliers arrive at 4-4 and have lost two in a row, per ESPN's standings.

Over nine games, Philadelphia has scored 111.0 points a game and allowed 105.2, but most of its wins have been close. Four of the five wins in this streak came by five or six points. The exception was a 126-107 rout of Chicago. The fourth quarter in Detroit fit that trend: a big lead got cut to two possessions before the defense closed it out.

The main thing to watch is Maxey. One poor shooting night doesn't change much for a player who has scored like he has, and the Sixers won anyway. If Brown can keep scoring at this level next to Maxey, Embiid and James, the Sixers become much harder to defend. Cleveland gets the first chance to see whether Wednesday was a one-off.