Luka Dončić's Mavs Criticized by Twitter as Slump Continues vs. Joel Embiid, 76ers

The Philadelphia 76ers are back in the win column.

Philadelphia's stars returned, and they helped snap a three-game losing streak with a 116-108 victory over the Dallas Mavericks in Wednesday's contest at Wells Fargo Center. Joel Embiid (25 points and nine rebounds) and James Harden (15 points and 12 assists) led the way in their first game back, as the home team improved to 50-26 on the campaign.

Tyrese Maxey (22 points) continued his strong play with his seventh game of at least 20 points.

As for Dallas, it continues to trend in the wrong direction with its fifth loss in six tries.

At this point, the team is outside the Western Conference play-in picture at 37-40 despite having Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving. It played well for stretches in Wednesday's loss but was outscored by 10 in the fourth quarter and drew plenty of criticism from social media:

The biggest storyline coming into the contest was the return of Embiid (calf) and Harden (Achilles) to the Philadelphia lineup. While the former missed just one game, the latter was out for the last four as the team struggled.

Yet their presence in the lineup didn't prevent the Mavericks from building a halftime lead, with Irving finding his stroke from deep, Dončić facilitating and Christian Wood providing a spark off the bench as part of a collective effort to counter Embiid.

A game with so much star power fittingly developed into a back-and-forth affair into the second half, but it wasn't always the stars leading the way. Tim Hardaway Jr. caught fire for the visitors for extended stretches, while Maxey, Georges Niang and De'Anthony Melton helped make up for Harden's struggles from the field on the other end.

The game was there for the taking for Dallas with a fourth-quarter lead, but it scored a measly five points in the last seven minutes in a late collapse.

It is running out of time to have any more collapses with just five games remaining in the season.