It was not perfect… but how does 1-0 sound?
The Sixers have officially generated more momentum than they could at any point last year. They beat the Celtics in Boston on Wednesday night, 117-116, to begin the 2025-26 regular season in the win column. VJ Edgecombe dominated in the first quarter, Tyrese Maxey did the same in the second and the Sixers entered intermission with a lead. Joel Embiid’s conspicuous silence and a disastrous third quarter looked like they would sink the Sixers, but Maxey and Edgecombe took turns taking over to keep them afloat.
It was impossible to justify trying to complete the comeback with a hobbled version of Embiid, so Sixers head coach Nick Nurse did not try to do it. He relied on his starting guards and a makeshift frontcourt to cross the finish line, and his Sixers just kept on pushing. Finally, Kelly Oubre Jr. turned around his struggles and put them ahead with a corner triple, then immediately drew an offensive foul on the other end. Despite Embiid’s complete ineptitude, the Sixers found a way to escape with a win, capitalizing on Maxey’s 40-point night and Edgecombe’s historic showing – a 34-point, seven-rebound masterpiece.
Everything that stood out from the Sixers’ thrilling, gutsy win to open the season:
VJ Edgecombe and Tyrese Maxey steal the show
Good lord.
There is not much else to say in reaction to Edgecombe’s first quarter of NBA action. The rookie talks a big game about being fearless and embracing challenges head-on, and he backed it up immediately. Edgecombe did not look remotely hesitant in his first quarter of his NBA debut in front of a raucous crowd. Instead, he looked eager, but not in an overzealous sort of way.
Edgecombe was completely under control as he diced up Boston’s defense, scoring 14 points in 11 minutes and change. He made a free throw for his first NBA point, and soon after scored 10 Sixers points in a row, beginning with a blazing drive to the basket and continuing with some impressive shot-making mixed in as well:
Edgecombe’s confidence has always appeared genuine. But watching him take no prisoners against the Boston Celtics in his very first burst of NBA action was pretty breathtaking. It reinforced everything he has said over the last few months, and affirmed the Sixers’ beliefs about his special mental makeup.
According to the NBA, Edgecombe’s 14 points are the most ever scored in the first quarter by a player making his NBA debut, surpassing the mark of 12 established by LeBron James in 2003.
Maxey happily played in a supporting role while Edgecombe dominated, but when the second quarter started it was the sixth-year guard’s turn to take over. After the first Edgecombe heater in the NBA, Maxey staged one of his vintage heaters. And with Embiid almost completely silent prior to intermission, the Sixers needed every bit of it.
Maxey scored 19 points in the second quarter alone, and he did it in all sorts of ways: Maxey hit some ridiculous jumpers, but also scored at the rim, the free throw line and the mid-range area. His finest moment came when he knocked down back-to-back threes, and the second one reduced Maxey to flashing his signature smile. He got Celtics wing Josh Minott with a nasty step-back:
Only one player not named Maxey or Edgecombe made multiple field goals in the first half (starting power forward Dominick Barlow made two shots). Yet those two guards were so dynamic that the Sixers entered intermission with a 57-51 lead. The Sixers’ overall defense was not quite as crisp as the Celtics’ 51-point mark would indicate – Boston missed a few wide open threes enabled by defensive breakdowns – but it was largely very good. It was in the second half when Boston started knocking down shots and the Sixers’ breakdowns became even more frequent.
Joel Embiid a shell of himself in first game of season
Many components of the identity the Sixers are attempting to adopt – regardless of Embiid’s availability – were on full display on Wednesday. That is, in itself, a major positive.
But the Sixers embracing pace will only take them so far without doses of Embiid’s methodical scoring. And on Wednesday, there were almost no signs of life from Embiid as a scorer. He just was not moving well enough to succeed, as a scorer or in any other capacity in an NBA game.
Embiid’s stints on the floor were short, but those quick bursts did not lead to any sort of increased intensity. Embiid constantly looked like he was laboring out there, and the Sixers were clearly better off when they did not bother trying to work him into the action and instead dialed up the tempo as much as they could, with Maxey and Edgecombe at the helm.
Boston opened the game with 6-foot-6 wing Jaylen Brown defending Embiid, and the seven-footer did nothing to take advantage of the mismatch. He only played the first five minutes of each of the first two quarters; the Sixers had to summon Andre Drummond to help finish the first half. In the fourth quarter, it became impossible for the Sixers to get stops because the Celtics ramped up their pace and Embiid simply could not keep up in any capacity.
It is just one game, but all of this is obviously ominous to some degree. Nobody was expecting Embiid to return to MVP-caliber play on opening night, and most people have written off the idea of him ever reaching those heights again. But if Embiid’s availability will consistently be limited – both in terms of games and minutes – he must be able to achieve some sorts of high-end outcomes for this team to thrive. Otherwise, there will be too significant of a workload on the rest of the group.
Odds and ends
Some additional notes:
• The opening frame belonged to Edgecombe, but the most impressive individual moment early on in this game belonged to Barlow. The Sixers have been praising his activity and rebounding for weeks, and Maxey said last week that he gets a lot of rebounds people do not expect him to grab. Barlow did just that, soaring out of nowhere to grab an Embiid miss and quickly assist a 28-foot Maxey triple for the star guard’s first basket of the season. He then missed a corner three, but emphatically swatted Derrick White in transition to force a jump ball. Barlow won that jump ball, immediately ran the floor and converted an and-one in transition:
Ever since the start of training camp, Nurse and several Sixers players have raved about what Barlow has brought to their gym. Everything they described was on display immediately on Wednesday night, from Barlow’s five rebounds (three on the offensive glass) to his hustle on the defensive end.
• Justin Edwards was not in the Sixers’ regular rotation in this game. He played the last defensive possession of the first quarter, but otherwise the Sixers forward’s minutes went to Oubre, Barlow and fellow two-way signee Jabari Walker. It is a slight surprise given the Sixers’ absences at those positions, but not a stunner because Edwards has not played well since the end of last season.
• The Sixers’ use of three-guard lineups should create advantageous perimeter matchups pretty regularly. On Wednesday, they had many chances to attack new Celtics guard Anfernee Simons, one of the weakest defenders in the NBA. Simons often found himself defending Grimes, a much taller and bigger player, but the Celtics got away with it the whole way. The Sixers should not feel compelled to completely disrupt their offensive flow for the sake of attacking mismatches, but sometimes it must be done.
Up next: After a pair of days off, the Sixers will play their home opener against the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday night.
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