Joel Embiid, James Harden propel 76ers to 8th straight victory

NEW YORK — After a Joel Embiid tip-in put the Philadelphia 76ers up by 14 with under five minutes remaining Sunday afternoon, the superstar center stretched his arms out wide above his head and soaked in the boos from the partisan crowd at Madison Square Garden.

Thanks to dominant performances from Embiid (35 points and eight rebounds) and co-star James Harden (29 points and 13 assists, while never checking out in the second half) Philadelphia celebrated a triumphant return to the NBA’s Christmas Day schedule after a one-year hiatus with a 119-112 victory over the New York Knicks.

“It feels good,” Embiid said. “It’s a blessing to be here. There’s not a lot of teams, a lot of guys, that get these opportunities.”

There’s also not a lot of teams that have a pair of guys like Embiid and Harden at their disposal.

Sunday’s game — the first of five played on the marquee day of the regular-season calendar — was a reminder of the way star power is, quite often, the difference maker in the NBA. And although the Sixers’ season got off to a slow start, Embiid and Harden have begun to find a groove together over the past few weeks, helping the 76ers win their eighth straight game.

Sixers coach Doc Rivers said before the game that usually one team adjusts well to the noon start time, and he hoped it would be his. But the Knicks dominated the first quarter from virtually every standpoint, led by Julius Randle, who scored 25 of his 35 points in the opening half.

“You never know how these afternoon games are going to start,” Rivers said afterward. “I thought their first quarter, they had all the energy, they killed us on the glass the whole first half. I thought they were quicker to everything.”

But despite that, the 76ers trailed by only three at halftime — thanks, in part, to a half-court heave by Shake Milton that banked in off the glass.

And as Knicks icons Carmelo Anthony and Bernard King — who remains the record-holder for the most points…