PHILADELPHIA – For the first time all season, the Sixers had their three stars available on Sunday night, with Joel Embiid returning from a nine-game absence and joining Tyrese Maxey and Paul George in battle against the Atlanta Hawks. VJ Edgecombe made his return, too, with Andre Drummond also available despite his ominous injury just two nights prior. With Kelly Oubre Jr. and Trendon Watford being the only players sidelined, the Sixers were closer to being at full strength in this one than they have been all year.
After 58 minutes of basketball, that did not matter.
The Sixers are 10-9 after losing to the Hawks at home, 142-134, in a game they lost control of because of a putrid offensive showing in the fourth quarter. They staged a miraculous comeback in the final minute to force overtime, with Maxey and Quentin Grimes doing tremendous work to keep the Sixers afloat before a massive George offensive rebound led to a game-tying triple from Maxey. But five extra minutes could not settle things, and so the Sixers and Hawks entered double overtime, where Hawks star Jalen Johnson went bucket for bucket with Maxey until Maxey, more than 50 minutes into his night, ran out of gas. Maxey and his team showed quite a bit of fight, but they lost a war of attrition.
Everything that stood out from the returns of Embiid and Edgecombe, plus more from the Sixers' excruciating and heartbreaking loss on Sunday:
Joel Embiid returns
After a plethora of updates, non-updates, upgrades and downgrades, Embiid finally made his return to action after 22 days on the shelf. He wasted no time easing himself back into action, instead asserting himself on his very first touch. Embiid opened the scoring with a vintage Embiid pull-up jumper in the mid-range out of a two-man action with Maxey:
That was Embiid's only basket in his opening stint, which lasted six minutes. But he did assist a Dominick Barlow bucket inside, then created a driving lane with a shot fake and drew a shooting foul. He scored four points in that first burst before being replaced by Drummond.
Embiid returned to begin the second quarter and immediately knocked down another mid-range jumper. In the opening minutes of the frame he had a collision with Hawks big Mouhamed Gueye, but Gueye appeared to suffer the worst of the crash as Embiid quickly got to his feet. He converted another mid-range jumper, then got Gueye to bite on a pretty stellar fake en route to free throws and came out of a timeout with another pull-up from the middle of the floor.
While Embiid was not doing anything spectacular, against a fairly small center rotation filled with players ceding many pounds and inches to him, he wisely played with the sort of force that has often eluded him in his return games after prolonged absences. On the defensive end, though, Embiid began to appear fatigued during his second stretch, and it impacted his already impaired mobility. The Hawks were able to take advantage a few times, but not as often as teams were doing during Embiid's most troubling defensive stretches early in the season.
After logging 13 minutes prior to intermission and scoring 11 points on six shots, Embiid assisted a Grimes dunk to open the second half's scoring, then drew a foul, converted a pair of free throws and scored an inside bucket. But his defense clearly became more problematic as the game went on, which might have just been a function of the Hawks doing a better job capitalizing on their opportunities against him in space.
Embiid had logged 18 minutes entering the final frame, and the Sixers opted to use his remaining minutes at the start of the final frame rather than in crunch time – the opposite of the approach they elected to take with George. Embiid had a pair of misses on offense, where the Sixers struggled quite a bit during a stretch where a Sixers lead that peaked at was erased by a strong Hawks push that put Atlanta ahead. After the Sixers committed four turnovers inside of three minutes, Embiid returned to the bench with 21 minutes under his belt.
When Embiid checked back into a four-point game with four minutes left, the Sixers struggled mightily to contain Atlanta on the glass – Embiid is not much of a rebounder when he so rarely leaves the ground, and the Sixers paid for it. Embiid was also not impactful on offense down the stretch, serving as more of a decoy than anything. After he almost surrendered a game-winning basket on the last play of regulation, it was stunning to see Embiid back out there at the start of overtime. But there he was, and Embiid's intensity was unsurprisingly higher even with fatigue setting in on his first night back. He missed what could have been a dagger with about 20 seconds left, but did find enough juice to pull off one key defensive stop.
It was easy to question the Sixers' decision to keep Embiid in the game for high-leverage minutes, but to be fair, even when Embiid was not performing like a star down the stretch, Atlanta clearly was defending him like one. It is not enough, but it is something.
While Embiid's ability to immediately provide some much-needed stability for the Sixers on offense was helpful, he continues to be such an enormous negative on the defensive end that it is unclear how much he can actually help the Sixers win in the aggregate. It is a tricky situation: the best version of the Sixers includes a more mobile Embiid, but there is no way to get him there without stomaching some suboptimal minutes. But even when Embiid's production is flawed, he has been able to boost the Sixers' floor on offense in a meaningful way.
VJ Edgecombe is back, too
Embiid was not the only player to return from injury and score on their first touch. Edgecombe laced this transition triple off a hit-ahead pass from Maxey to set the tone:
Edgecombe also played six minutes to open the game, and for someone who missed three games due to a calf injury the 20-year-old rookie looked spry from the outset. Edgecombe is too young for there to be such thing as a vintage play from him, but he scored again on a soaring layup in the open floor that encapsulated the depths of his remarkable athletic capabilities. He was also strong on the defensive end early, nabbing a particularly impressive steal in the opening frame.
Edgecombe returned to the floor after three minutes of rest, sharing the floor with Jared McCain and Grimes in the absence of Tyrese Maxey. He finished out the quarter before getting more rest. Upon returning with three minutes and change remaining in the first half, Edgecombe did little of note, though he did nearly come up with a tremendous block at the rim.
In the second half, Grimes started over Edgecombe shortly after clearing concussion protocol. Edgecombe was on the bench in uniform, and Sixers head coach Nick Nurse has always been adamant that Edgecombe needs to be out there as much as possible. Given it was unlikely that this was a demotion, it seems safe to assume Nurse was trying to preserve some of Edgecombe's remaining minutes for crunch time.
About midway through the quarter, Edgecombe returned to the floor. He was quiet for a few minutes, but then had an impressive steal and a mature drive-and-dish to Grimes for a dunk:
On a night when Maxey was not quite his dominant self but still mostly effective and when Grimes found a groove, Edgecombe rightfully deferred offensively and used much of his energy as a defender, though he did end the third quarter with a strong basket playing through considerable contract.
At 21 minutes, Edgecombe's night turned out to be over, and Grimes' strong night prevented that from being too brutal of a blow. Edgecombe did not have any gaudy numbers in his return, but he looked comfortable and athletic. It is something to build on.
Odds and ends
Some additional notes:
• Before the game, Hawks head coach Quin Snyder raved about Barlow, who spent the 2024-25 campaign in Atlanta.
"He really knows how to play. And he gave us [good minutes], in a stretch where we really needed someone to comein and not only give us good minutes, but kind of connect as a team," Snyder said. "And I think it's unusual for a player in that position to have that kind of impact on the group. So I'm really happy to see him doing well. And I'm not surprised as far as, he's got a great feel for the game, can pass, handle, just a smart player. Very committed to helping the team."
Barlow played 20 minutes in the first half alone on Sunday and it did not feel like he was being overused; Barlow has clearly established himself as someone in whom Nurse has significant faith. His conversion to a standard contract is truly an inevitability at this point, though the Sixers do not need to rush that. Barlow continues to stand out on the glass and has received plenty of praise for his work as a passer in advantage situations and as a cutter. As more and more teams load up against Maxey, those skills will come in handy. Barlow is here to stay.
• Drummond missing no time after a knee injury that reduced him to a wheelchair is pretty remarkable. He appeared to be in considerable pain at the time, though after the game Drummond was walking with only a slight limp and appeared to be in good spirits.
Drummond returned to his backup center role behind Embiid in the first half this one, but given Embiid was on a minutes limit and Drummond was coming off an injury scare, it only made sense for Nurse to give Adem Bona some minutes as well. Bona was active in his minutes after submitting a strong performance in his own return from injury on Friday, but it was a surprise to see him more than double Drummond's minutes total.
• Here is a video of the aforementioned game-tying shot from Maxey. He earned this one:
Up next: The Sixers will be back in action on Tuesday night when they play host to the lowly Washington Wizards.
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