The Sixers brought back their black jerseys and returned to winning ways Saturday night. 

The team earned a 130-120 victory over the Raptors at Xfinity Mobile Arena in the debut of its throwback uniforms honoring the 2000-01 Eastern Conference champion team.

The Sixers now sit at 6-3. Toronto is 5-5. 

Six Sixers scored in double figures. Trendon Watford recorded his first career triple-double with a tremendous performance, putting up 20 points, 17 rebounds and 10 assists. Tyrese Maxey had 31 points and seven assists. Joel Embiid tallied 29 points in 26 minutes.

Embiid compared Watford to a former Sixer with 33 career triple-doubles. 

“Reminded me of Ben Simmons tonight,” he said with a smile. 

The Sixers remained without Paul George (left knee surgery recovery) and Dominick Barlow (right elbow laceration). Johni Broome was unavailable because of a right ankle sprain. 

The Sixers will host the Pistons on Sunday night. Here are observations on their win over the Raptors:

Watford shines as starter 

Watford made his first start as a Sixer and scored the team’s first basket on a slam assisted by VJ Edgecombe. 

The Raptors and Immanuel Quickley were ultra-hot out of the gates. Toronto started 6 for 6 from floor and took a 15-7 lead on Quickley’s pull-up three-pointer.. 

The Sixers replied with a 13-0 run spurred by forced turnovers and open-floor attacks. Edgecombe and Maxey nabbed early steals. Watford jammed in a put-back dunk and assisted a Maxey corner three. 

Watford had been excellent as a backup point guard Wednesday in the Sixers’ loss the Cavs. He was awfully strong as a very versatile starting forward against Toronto. 

The Sixers ran tons of pitch actions with Watford on the court in the first quarter. Their perimeter players were often able to get a downhill head of steam off of both dribble handoffs and fake handoffs. Watford’s ability to read the defense and react sharply was a major help. He posted 11 points on 5-for-6 shooting, three rebounds (two offensive) and two assists in the first period. 

“Listen, he’s a hooper,” Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said. “He really knows how to play and he can do a lot of different things. His instincts are just so good.”

In just his sixth game with the Sixers, Watford comfortably surged past his prior career bests in assists (eight) and rebounds (14).

“Really just making plays for myself and others,” he said. “Having this amount of talent around me makes it easy. Having one of the best guards in the league, a former MVP with Jo, and everybody else — with (Quentin Grimes), with Kelly (Oubre Jr.), with VJ.

“It makes my job easy, just being able to get them the ball and then they knock down a shot or knock down a layup. But I’ve been doing it, and just keep doing it.”

Maxey appreciated sharing his close friend‘s milestone night.

“It’s really cool, honestly,” he said. “Blessed. For me to be able to actually give him the game ball for a triple-double, it’s something we’ll probably remember for a long time. Hopefully, we get to play with each other for a while.

“I’m just proud of him, man. I know what he can do. I talk trash to him all the time, but I know what he’s capable of. That’s who he is and I don’t really expect anything less of that caliber of player. So hopefully, he keeps it up.”

Stars lead Sixers’ push back 

Despite their big run in the first quarter, the Sixers still had a rough overall start defensively. Toronto poured in 43 first-quarter points and had a 10-point advantage after 12 minutes.

The Raptors went up 51-37 early in the second quarter on a Ja’Kobe Walter corner three. They began a scorching 10 for 12 beyond the arc. 

Ultimately, Toronto’s shooters cooled off and the Sixers’ defense was much better in the second quarter. Embiid also played good, aggressive basketball in his second stint. A Watford high-low feed set Embiid up for a layup that cut the Sixers’ deficit to two points. Eventually, a short jumper from Oubre (19 points) gave the Sixers a 58-56 edge. 

With Embiid sitting, Maxey was stellar late in the second quarter. His lefty scoop layup with 1.9 seconds left in the first half put the Sixers up 68-63. 

Saving Embiid for the home stretch

Nurse used five players off the bench. Surprisingly, Jared McCain was not among them. The second-year guard was available to play (with limited minutes) for the second time since returning from a right thumb UCL tear. 

“He was available tonight,” Nurse confirmed postgame, “and there were some scenarios where we might use him, but those didn’t present themselves tonight. So he’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”

The Sixers’ starters had a few defensive lapses early in the third quarter. Brandon Ingram’s mid-range jumper knotted the game at 78-all. 

Watford and Maxey then fueled a fantastic stretch. Both played zealous defense, hustling back into plays to contest and block shots. They were also in the middle of fluid, highly effective offense. Watford dished a between-the-legs assist to Maxey, whose three put the Sixers up 94-82.

The Sixers fared badly with Maxey out late in the third quarter. Edgecombe had his third consecutive subpar shooting game, going 5 for 15 from the floor. A Quickley runner early in the fourth trimmed the Raptors’ deficit to 102-101.

Although the Sixers made an immediate 7-0 run, Toronto hung around. Nurse saved Embiid for the final minutes, calling timeout and subbing him in with the Sixers up 119-116 and 3:16 to go.

The tide swiftly turned.

Edgecombe converted a driving layup, Oubre slammed in a second-chance dunk and Embiid tipped in his own miss. Handling Embiid’s minutes restriction is often tricky, but having him on the floor down the stretch tends to make plenty of sense.

“Obviously, it shakes out better when you win,” Nurse said. “I think we’re still playing around with it. I think there’s a case for playing him at the start of all the quarters and just getting it over with, which we’ve done before. I think there is a case for getting him back in there when we’re in the bonus for a couple of minutes at the end of quarters.

“It’s a little tricky, but that’s kind of what we were shooting for tonight in the second half, to leave him with two or three minutes, not six or seven like we’ve done in a couple of other games. We’ll see what happens next time.”