Jan. 15, 2026, 5:31 a.m. ET
PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers returned home on Wednesday to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers looking to keep things rolling in the right direction. Unfortunately, a slow start did them in as they fell to the Cavs 133-107 to fall to 10-10 at home on the season.
The Sixers received 20 points and four rebounds from Joel Embiid while Tyrese Maxey added 14 points and four assists, and Paul George had 17 points, four assists, and four rebounds. VJ Edgecombe added nine points.
Here are the three biggest takeaways from the loss:
Slow start does them in
The Cavs jumped on the Sixers in the first quarter as they outshot Philadelphia 30-16 in the opening frame and grabbed eight offensive rebounds leading to 11 second-chance points. Of course, that frontline of Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley is one of the better ones in the league, but Embiid and Co. struggled all night to rebound the ball. The Cavaliers won the rebounding battle 52-42 on the night, led by Mobley’s 13. The Sixers had their chances to get back into it in the second quarter as they had cut into the lead and make it a single-digit game, but the Cavs answered with a run and led by 13 at the half. The lead then swelled to as large as 30.
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“Well, obviously, they had a lot more energy than we did, for whatever reason,” coach Nick Nurse said after the loss. “Just every facet of the game, they took it to us. Faster up the floor, faster to the basket, faster to the offensive rebounds like crazy early in the game and we only had a couple of small segments where we actually played a little better. A little bit through the second and then kind of gave it all back. We had the ball rolling out a chance to cut that whole thing down to five with about four minutes to go, then go down into halftime down 13. Then, even in the stretch when we were way down and cut it back to 15, there was still plenty of time left at that point, and then we just again, lost all our energy and physicality.”
Cavs swarming Maxey
It was obvious that the Cavaliers were not going to allow Maxey to beat them. Every time he crossed half court, they swarmed him and made life tough on him as he shot just 5-for-16 on the night. He shot 2-for-8 from deep and only had the four assists. It was, obviously, an un-Maxey-like night. Players are allowed to have off nights. This is the NBA with the best of the best in the world, so it is going to happen at times. It will be interesting to see what the adjustment for Maxey will be like on Friday in the rematch as he addressed the pressure he faced.
“I started out slow,” Maxey said. “Kind of just like energy wise, and kind of let them kind of box me in a little bit, but, yeah. I mean, sometimes you just gotta make the right place. I feel like a couple of times I came off and it was two, three bodies and I just got off the ball and that’s how I play basketball. If I see multiple bodies and I don’t think I have an advantage and I feel like somebody else on my team should have an advantage.”
Embiid’s turnovers
He eventually was able to get himself together, but Embiid contributed to the slow start with his inability to take care of the ball. He had four turnovers in the first quarter, finishing with six for the game, and it stopped Philadelphia from finding any type of rhythm. One has to give credit to Allen as he, obviously, got up for this game and was really into Embiid to try and slow him down. The Cleveland big man finished with 10 points, five rebounds, and he bothered the Sixers with his size and energy.
“Obviously, I turned the ball over a few times, and then we just weren’t locked in from the start,” Embiid explained. “But yeah, obviously I had, like, five turnovers in that first quarter. So yeah, that’s on me.”