NBA scores 2014: 76ers finally get a win & 3 other things we learned Wednesday night

They did it. The 76ers won a game to avoid matching the worst start in NBA history.

Dec 4, 2014, 1:00 PM UTC

Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

Our long national nightmare is over. The Philadelphia 76ers have won a basketball game against another NBA team. By beating the Minnesota Timberwolves, 85-77, the Sixers avoided matching the 2009-10 Brooklyn Nets for the worst start in NBA history. Philadelphia is now 1-17.

This one wasn’t pretty, and the gaffes began right from the opening tip, when the officials sent the teams in the wrong direction and a restart was needed. Things didn’t get better when the game started for real.

The Sixers won despite shooting 39 percent overall, 5-of-24 from three and 16-of-25 from the free throw line. The Sixers won despite turning the ball over 19 times. The Sixers won despite scoring nine points in the second quarter.

That's a whole lot of bad, and it looked like it was going to be same old Sixers after they blew a seven-point lead in the fourth quarter. But after Mo Williams' three-pointer put the Wolves up two with 2:16 left, the Sixers blew up the tank for one night.

Michael Carter-Williams took over the game, scoring or assisting on the next 10 points. Carter-Williams found rookie K.J. McDaniels for an open three to answer Williams, and after a Gorgui Dieng travel, the second-year point guard drove to the hole for an easy layup. The next two possessions resulted in a three-pointer for Robert Covington and a bucket for Nerlens Noel, both on feeds from Carter-Williams.

Carter-Williams nearly notched a triple-double, finishing with 20 points, nine rebounds and nine assists. Covington had 17 points and hit three huge three-pointers in the fourth quarter.

As great as it must feel for the Sixers to finally get off the schneid, the feeling has to be just as bad for Minnesota. The Wolves are going through a nightmare season of their own in the first year of the post-Kevin Love era, with injuries to Ricky Rubio, Nikola Pekovic and Kevin Martin throwing things all out of whack.

2014 No. 1 pick Andrew Wiggins shot just 4-of-12 as he understandably continues to struggle as a rookie, while 2013 No. 1 pick Anthony Bennett played just four minutes in the loss. That's not a good sign when a No. 1 pick in his second season is only getting four minutes on a bad, injury-plagued team against Philadelphia.

But enough about Minnesota. Let’s celebrate and cherish the Sixers’ victory, there won’t be many of them.

3 other things we learned

The Rockets made a statement: The short-handed Rockets welcomed the 15-2 Grizzlies to Houston and proceeded to deliver a thorough beat down, getting some revenge after a 30-point loss earlier in the season. No Dwight Howard. No Terrence Jones. No Patrick Beverley. It didn't matter one bit to Houston, who came away with a 105-96 victory. The nine-point final margin wasn't indicative at all of how this one played out, as the Rockets entered the fourth quarter up 26 points. James Harden led six players, including all five starters, in double figures with 21 points. Tarik Black recorded his first career double-double and grabbed nine offensive rebounds, one shy of Memphis' total as a team. Donatas Motiejunas, Kostas Papanikolaou and Jason Terry all provided solid contributions. The defense was generally superb. This was just a great team win for a beat-up Houston squad that's 14-4 despite the litany of injuries.

The Hawks are quietly near the top of the Eastern Conference: The Hawks haven't gotten too much pub this season, but they've now won four games in a row thanks to an impressive 112-102 victory against the Heat in South Beach. It was a great night for point guards Jeff Teague and Dennis Schroder, who both put forth efficient performances. Teague had 27 points on 8-of-11 shooting while handing out six assists, and Schroder had 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Kyle Korver had a solid night as well with 18 points, although 3-of-7 from three is a bad night by his standards. Korver is shooting 56.7 percent from deep on the season and has an otherworldly 76.0 true shooting percentage. With the victory, Atlanta is 11-6 and in third place in the East, a game behind Washington and three behind Toronto.

Speaking of Toronto ... Kyle Lowry is stepping up without DeMar DeRozan: Lowry came in at No. 8 in the first edition of our MVP Power Rankings, and he may be in line for a bump thanks to performances like the ones he had on Tuesday and Wednesday. After putting up 27 points and 13 assists in a tough road win over the Kings, the point guard poured in a career-high 39 points in a 123-104 win at Utah. In three games since DeRozan went down with a torn adductor longus tendon, Lowry averaged 31.7 points and 8.7 assists while shooting 46.5 percent overall and 37.5 percent from three. The Raptors went 2-1 in those three games, which all came on the road. That's MVP stuff.

Play of the Night

Monta Ellis Have It All. For those counting at home, that's two game-winners in a row for Ellis after he also beat the Bulls on Tuesday. But this one gets extra brownie points for being a buzzer-beater against his former team.