Eric Gordon's buzzer-beater lifts Rockets over Sixers

Remember the 76ers squads of recent seasons? The ones notorious for blowing huge leads late in games?

Well, the 2017-18 version  of those teams  showed up Wednesday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

The Sixers were  3  minutes, 5 seconds away from pulling off their first victory against the Houston Rockets since Nov. 13, 2013. But that's when the bottom fell out for the home  team,  and Eric Gordon eventually made  the Sixers  pay.

The shooting guard's three-pointer at the buzzer gave the Rockets a 105-104, victory, silencing a sold-out crowd of 20,682.

The Sixers dropped to 1-4 and extended their series losing streak to eight games against the Rockets. Houston (4-1) has won 10 of the teams' last 12 meetings.

But the Sixers had numerous opportunities  to  close out the game. However, they missed their final four shots and committed three turnovers in the final 3:04.

"I think this is the toughest one," said reserve point guard T.J. McConnell, referring to the team's inability to close out games.  "To work as hard as we did, I think we deserve that one."

J.J. Redick has said in the past that  the  toughest thing in the learning curve for young guys is learning how to win and close  out games. McConnell said that applies to  the Sixers.

"This is year three for a lot of us," McConnell said. "It's time to buckle  down and get stops."

Even with the Sixers' offensive struggles, the  arena was buzzing with excitement before Gordon's shot.

Joel Embiid, once again, showed one he's one of the NBA elite players. Robert Covington and Redick displayed versatility, hitting threes and going strong to the basket. And Ben Simmons  nearly got  another double-double.

Redick paced the Sixers with 22 points on 9-for-16 shooting, including 3 of 8 on three-pointers. Embiid had 21 points, six rebounds and two blocks. Covington had 20 points while making 4 of 12 three-pointers, and  Simmons finished with 14 points, nine assists and seven rebounds. He ended his streak of double-double performances to start the season at four games.

The Rockets tried  a  backdoor  play in  the final  seconds.

However, the plan didn't work because Embiid was up there. So James Harden instead passed the ball to Gordon, who was standing in the corner.

The game's final play ended moments after Gordon pump-faked Embiid, who was charging at him. The pump fake enabled him to get off the game-winner after Embiid flew right by him.

"It is a learning experience," Embiid said of the loss.

"We have to grow and learn from this. All you can take away from this is a learning  experience . We will need that in the future."

Gordon finished with a game-high 29 points to go with five assists. He made 5 of 16 three-pointers. Rockets point guard James Harden had 27 points, a game-high 13 assists and eight turnovers.

The Sixers had an eight-point lead (93-85) with 7:29 remaining. The Rockets cut the lead to three points.

However, Redick scored a three-pointer and  hit a  driving layup on consecutive possessions to make it a 100-92 game with 4:39 to play. The Sixers' final basket came on Simmons's layup that gave them a 104-96 lead with 3:05  remaining.

But their execution suffered down the stretch as the Rockets recorded the come-from-behind victory.

"I think we let one slip," Sixers coach Brett Brown said.