December 04, 2025
Bill Streicher/Imagn Images
Tyrese Maxey's star keeps on shining brighter. Was it enough on Thursday?
PHILADELPHIA – It is often said that it is better to be lucky than good. On Thursday night, the Sixers were mostly good until a disastrous fourth quarter. However, they were very lucky.
Hosting the Golden State Warriors can be an immense challenge. But with Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler out for Golden State on Thursday – and only one half of Draymond Green – Warriors head coach Steve Kerr was starved for shot creation. His team managed just 10 points in a first quarter that gave the Sixers a 20-point advantage. Sixers head coach Nick Nurse's team was definitely more organized and cohesive on that end of the floor than usual, but they were aided by facing an offense that just did not have the requisite personnel to score enough points to win an NBA game.
The Sixers won 99-98 Friday, with a terrific Tyrese Maxey performance standing out in a game that was not close until the Sixers cratered in the fourth quarter. Joel Embiid had his moments despite missing shots he usually makes. He surpassed 25 minutes before the third quarter even ended and sat for the final 18 minutes of the game, watching his team nearly bungle an easy victory before VJ Edgecombe put back a Maxey miss to give the Sixers the lead, and Maxey came up with a remarkable game-saving block. It is one of the more remarkable finishes you will see in a basketball game:
Sixers/Warriors just had one of the best finishes of the season. That was CRAZY pic.twitter.com/jGDZAw5NSv
— Kevin O'Connor (@KevinOConnor) December 5, 2025
For the first time since Oct. 28, the Sixers have won their second game in a row. Takeaways from their thrilling Thursday triumph:
Quentin Grimes returned from a one-game absence caused by a calf issue on Thursday. And for the first time, he started alongside both Maxey and Edgecombe. The Sixers' best minutes during the first 20 games of the season have come with all three of those guards on the floor together, and the three-guard lineups have been at the center of head coach Nick Nurse's rotation all season.
Nurse has never ruled out the idea of starting them together, but with Paul George out on the front end of the back-to-back and Kelly Oubre Jr. still nursing his knee injury, he decided not to start Justin Edwards on the wing and instead go smaller against a Golden State starting five that was fairly small with Butler sidelined and Jonathan Kuminga coming off the bench. It was an opportune time for Nurse to generate as much ball-handling optionality and floor spacing as he could on the offensive end without paying much of a price for it defensively.
Especially because Grimes' minutes were being monitored and Edgecombe's minutes were being limited on Thursday, Nurse's decision to start them together with Maxey also reflected well on his confidence in Jared McCain. The Sixers have struggled mightily when Maxey has been off the floor this season despite Grimes and Edgecombe at times succeeding in their attempts to tag-team the backup point guard position. McCain is the clearest possible solution to those issues, and his off-the-dribble creation for himself and others has been trending upwards of late. Nurse initially was ensuring McCain never had to take too significant of a workload as a ball-handler, but has given him more and more exposure of late.
Despite an unusually slow start for Maxey – figuratively and literally – the Sixers were humming offensively by the end of the frame. Maxey eventually got into one of his tremendous scoring grooves, and he did not focus much on creation for others. Perhaps having even more ball-handling than usual on the floor with two guards and Embiid helped him attack with aggression offensively.
Edgecombe had an early scoring burst aided by a pair of three-pointers; the rookie has managed to not press when he is not scoring but did make a self-deprecating comment about his lack of points after Tuesday's win. Grimes had another balanced game, it was one of his better passing performances of the season.
Nurse is likely not going to start three guards together when both George and Oubre are available, but they will remain critical components of his rotations. On nights when one or both of those wings are unavailable, Nurse should continue to seek out chances to start those three guards against smaller units like the one Kerr trotted out on Thursday. But there are defensive challenges, as Golden State's larger closing lineup proved.
Some additional notes:
• Edgecombe has been dunked on the first time in his NBA career – by the unlikeliest of suspects. If anyone thought the player to first posterize Edgecombe would one of his own teammates, take a bow. Dominick Barlow had the honors:
DOM BARLOW! 😳 pic.twitter.com/pcCOcQCUYx
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) December 5, 2025
• While Golden State was missing many key players, including an old friend in Butler, they did have quite a few familiar faces on the floor. Al Horford started at center, Buddy Hield faced off against his mentee in Edgecombe for the first time on an NBA floor, Seth Curry played in his second game as a member of the Warriors and De'Anthony Melton made his season debut, marking his official return from a torn ACL.
Up next: The Sixers are getting right on their team airplane and heading to Milwaukee, where on Friday night they will complete their back-to-back facing a Giannis Antetokounmpo-less Bucks team.
