PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers are 2-0 to begin the 2025-26 season following a 125-121 win over the Charlotte Hornets. The Sixers had to rally from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter to get the job done, but it’s another one in the win column to begin the season which is all that matters.

Tyrese Maxey led Philadelphia with 28 points, nine assists, and six rebounds on the night while Quentin Grimes had 24 points and hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 15.0 seconds left. Joel Embiid added 20 points in his 20 minutes while Kelly Oubre Jr. added 19 points, VJ Edgecombe had 15 and eight assists, and Andre Drummond had seven, 13 rebounds, three assists, and two steals in 15:48 off the bench.

Here are the three biggest takeaways following the win over the Hornets:

Quentin Grimes as a bench piece

Grimes is, obviously, a starter in this league, but on this Sixers team, coach Nick Nurse has to bring him off the bench. It’s not a bad thing at all as Philadelphia now has a reliable scorer for the second unit and provide a big lift. The fact that the Sixers can turn to a guy like Grimes and he hops off the bench and pours in 24 on 7-for-14 shooting while knocking down five 3-pointers is a luxury for anybody in this league. If he continues to come off the bench this way, he can build a serious case for 6th Man of the Year. He’s the type of player who has played plenty of roles in his career so this isn’t anything new to him. While Nurse would like to get him more than the 30 minutes he played against the Hornets, he still made a big impact.

“You got to just have a mentality to come in there and just contribute to the game,” Grimes said after the win. “However it may be, if I’m getting starter’s minutes, or whatever the case may be, I want to make sure I come in and do whatever I can help the team win. I feel like everybody on this team knows what I’m capable of, knows what I do, and I feel like Nick knows that as well. Everybody knows. They give me a lot of push to go out and be myself. I can’t ask for anything more than that. So I think we have a great group of guys that pushed me every single day and I’m gonna do that.”

A huge lift from Andre Drummond

Nurse had to turn to somebody to play center down the stretch. He had to take out Embiid early in the third quarter as he reached his 20 minutes played–his current minutes limit–and then the Sixers lost Dominick Barlow to a right elbow laceration at halftime. Nurse turned to Drummond and the 2-time All-Star played the final 15:48 of the game. He was phenomenal on the glass, per usual, as six of the 13 rebounds he grabbed were on the offensive end and he blew up a lot of what Charlotte tried to run down the stretch of the game. The Sixers don’t win that game without him.

“Just being ready for those moments,” Drummond said. “My number was called. I was prepared. We did great. We did great. We finished that fourth quarter out the way we were supposed to wasn’t all me. It was a collective thing, and it was pretty cool to be a part of.”

Big lift from Justin Edwards

There was a stretch late in the third and going into the fourth quarter when Edwards stepped up and made some big plays for Philadelphia. He made a triple late in the third and then stepped into two big ones in the fourth to begin the rally. On top of that, he had to defend the tough guards the Hornets send out there on a regular basis. Charlotte’s guards are not easy to defend from LaMelo Ball to Kon Knueppel to Collin Sexton and he stepped up in a big way when the Sixers needed him. It was good for Edwards to see the ball go through the net and contribute to a win. It had been a tough preseason for him and he didn’t play much on opening night in Boston.

“I think it was great for both Justin and Drum because I think we’re trying to figure out where they fit in and where they help us,” said Nurse. “We, obviously, needed both of them desperately tonight, so it was great for those guys to play that way and they’re going to have some confidence now.”