On Monday night, the Sixers were soundly defeated by old friend Jared McCain and the Oklahoma City Thunder. The defending champions had no problem taking care of business on Monday night against a Sixers team that was reduced to VJ Edgecombe, Quentin Grimes and friends. Two games and five days later, a whole lot has changed.

In one of their two most critical remaining games of the season, the Sixers notched a huge road win over the surging Charlotte Hornets. They did so with their entire roster – save for rookie second-round pick Johni Broome – available to head coach Nick Nurse. After Joel Embiid and Paul George dominated in their returns from lengthy absences on Wednesday, Tyrese Maxey came back in Charlotte to the surprise of many; this return came two games before Maxey was even set to be officially reevaluated.

On offense, the Sixers mostly played very well. On defense, they were only okay, but a truly horrid effort on the defensive glass nearly sunk them. Hornets center Moussa Diabaté, only listed at 210 pounds but one of the best offensive rebounders in the NBA, completely outworked the Sixers’ bigs and established a tremendous tone for Charlotte that the Sixers could not match for a considerable portion of the game. Their effort was not bad, but it did not come close to meeting the bar that Diabaté set. Brandon Miller was outstanding, too, and the Sixers appeared incapable of overcoming it.

But in the fourth quarter, which the Sixers entered trailing by five points, their extensive experience won the day. The game went down to its final minutes and seconds, but Maxey, Embiid and George took the Sixers home with a series of clutch plays on both ends of the floor. It was a truly enormous win, not only giving the Sixers an additional game over their strongest foe in the packed right for the Eastern Conference’s last two playoff bids, but also securing the season-series victory, giving them a tiebreaker advantage.

Takeaways from the Sixers’ gigantic 118-114 victory:

Sixers win/lose in Tyrese Maxey’s return

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Maxey’s first stint on the floor was a bit uneventful. That was, at least in part, due to him deferring to an extremely aggressive Embiid. He scored four points in the opening frame but was passive; he did not take any jumpers during that time. Maxey, who is playing with a splint, struggled mightily late last season with a very similar injury before being shut down. That was cause for concern.

But once the second quarter started, Maxey heated up. He converted a tough mid-range jumper, then connected on three straight triples, the last of which was a bomb:

One of the major keys to Saturday’s game for the Sixers was always going to be taking care of the ball; Charlotte has a lethal transition offense. Maxey has many well-documented strengths, but one of the unheralded benefits of having him is that he is a low-turnover player. In tandem with a forceful Embiid and George continuing to find his rhythm, Maxey scored 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting in the first half, with four assists to just one turnover.

Early in the fourth quarter, Maxey tied the game in emphatic fashion, throwing down a left-handed poster jam over Miles Bridges:

Maxey flipped in a tough scoop finish to give the Sixers their first lead of the game, and after a Hornets surge put Charlotte back in front midway through the final frame, Maxey made another one before his teammates helped seal the deal late. On a night the Sixers’ offense took them home, Maxey was naturally a critical piece of their success on that end of the floor – and his performance (26 points, eight assists, seven rebounds) and endurance (43 minutes) were incredibly impressive given the circumstances.Nick Nurse starts Dominick Barlow over Kelly Oubre Jr.

All three of George, Barlow and Oubre have been full-time starters this year, manning two spots. The Sixers have so rarely had all three of them available at once that Nurse has never had to declare two starters and a reserve. George, a nine-time All-Star and the stabilizer of the Sixers’ defense, was never going to come off the bench.

The choice was always going to be between Oubre and Barlow, and after telegraphing it over the last few days, Nurse went with Barlow at the four in between George and Embiid, taking Oubre out of the starting role the veteran swingman has been very prideful about in the past in his return from a left elbow sprain.

Oubre should still be expected to play the same number of minutes as a typical starter, and he will often close games for this team over Barlow. On Saturday, it became clear it was not a perfect setting for Barlow, and he did not play all that much. But generally, Barlow goes from somewhat directionless when playing with Adem Bona or Andre Drummond to a dynamic two-way chess piece alongside Embiid.

It is not that Oubre does not also experience significant benefits playing next to Embiid – his efficiency has always been dramatically better when sharing the floor with the former NBA MVP – but he is not as reliant on Embiid as Barlow is. If the vast majority of Barlow’s minutes are to come next to Embiid, it is sensible for him to start.

Elsewhere in the rotation, Nurse opted against playing Trendon Watford, instead going with both Cam Payne and Justin Edwards in small roles behind his main eight players: Maxey, Edgecombe, George, Barlow, Embiid, Grimes, Oubre and Adem Bona.

It is reasonable to wonder if Payne is on the verge of losing his rotation spot; the vast majority of his appearances have been subpar and Edgecombe can handle the backup point guard role if needed – that is exactly what happened in the second half in Charlotte. Going with Edwards over Watford (and Jabari Walker) is a sensible choice given the Sixers’ many ball-dominant players available, but especially against the fast-paced Hornets he seemed like the right choice to play, even in a limited capacity.

Odds and ends

A few additional notes:

• Predictably, Edgecombe’s usage took a nosedive with all three of Maxey, George and Embiid on the floor, but there were moments where he had chances to operate with the ball in his hands. He changed the tenor of the game on two different occasions, though those were brief bursts. Figuring out how to balance Edgecombe’s continued growth with the short-term benefits of giving the ball to other players more often will be tricky for Nurse.

• In response to his team’s extensive issues on the defensive glass, Nurse went with Andre Drummond over Bona in the second half. It was not a reflection of poor performance on Bona’s part, merely an indication that defensive rebounds were at a premium and Nurse felt he needed to prioritize them. The Sixers really buckled down with Drummond out there; it was 

• For what it’s worth, these Hornets have a solid case as the best team in the Eastern Conference since the calendar turned to 2026, and one of the truly elite teams in the entire NBA. They may not be true championship contenders just yet, but they are very good. Nurse raved about them for two full minutes after Friday’s practice.

Up next: The most important game left on the Sixers’ schedule is their next one, as they will head to Miami and face the Heat on Monday.

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