Kelly Oubre Jr.’s season-high 32 points, Kyle Lowry’s double-double propel Sixers past Raptors

TORONTO — No Tyrese Maxey, no problem.

At least while playing the reeling Raptors. And with Kelly Oubre Jr. pouring in a season-high 32 points.

Oubre and the 76ers bolted out to a big lead without their injured All-Star point guard, propelling them to a much-needed 135-120 victory Sunday night at Scotiabank Arena.

“We shot the ball really well,” coach Nick Nurse said after the game. “But a lot of that was off of some really good, I think, next passes or one more pass. We were creating a lot of those. Things kind of shift [with Maxey out]. Kelly becomes kind of one of our main guys. Cam Payne’s a main driver. Tobias [Harris] had a good segment there when the game got closer.

“A lot of guys contribute, but a lot of it just had to do with making the right play a lot of the time.”

The win also guaranteed that the Sixers (40-35) would not lose ground in the Eastern Conference standings Sunday, with seven regular-season games to play. They remained 1½ games behind the seventh-place Miami Heat (who beat the Washington Wizards on Sunday), and trimmed the gap between them and the sixth-place Indiana Pacers (who were off Sunday) to two games.

Maxey — who is averaging 25.6 points and 6.2 assists per game, and has been the Sixers’ primary offensive option during Joel Embiid’s absence — sat out Sunday’s matchup with left hip tightness. His team collectively picked up his scoring production by making a franchise-record 24 three-pointers on 43 attempts, and shot 57.6% overall against a Raptors team that dropped its 13th consecutive game and has been one of the NBA’s worst defenses all season.

Oubre went 6-of-11 from three-point range — including one at the first-half buzzer to give the Sixers a 71-55 lead — and added seven rebounds and three assists. Kyle Lowry put up a double-double (11 points, 10 assists) in his latest return to Toronto, where he starred for nine seasons and won the 2019 NBA title while playing for now-Sixers coach Nurse. Payne had 24 points on 6-of-10 shooting from long range after moving into the starting lineup, while Harris finished with 21 points and nine rebounds, and Nico Batum added 19 points on 7-of-8 shooting.

Toronto briefly made things interesting when a Jordan Nwora floater cut what had been an 18-point Sixers lead to 101-95 in the fourth quarter’s opening minute. But Batum answered with one of his five three-pointers, and Harris followed with a jumper to push the Sixers’ advantage back to 11. The Raptors never got closer than seven after that.

The Sixers built a 14-point first-quarter advantage, fueled by a 7-of-11 mark from beyond the arc. That grew to 57-39 on a Batum three-pointer with less than five minutes to play in the second quarter, but then Toronto staged a 10-2 run capped by a Gary Trent Jr. steal and basket to prompt a Nurse timeout before the Sixers’ surge before the break.

The Sixers host the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday before heading back on the road for a crucial Thursday showdown in Miami.