PHILADELPHIA – The atmosphere at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Thursday night was second to none, with a capacity crowd treating every individual possession of a 48-minute game like it would determine the victor of the NBA Finals.

There will be no banner raised for a stunning 29-point comeback, but on Thursday night the Sixers at least earned this much: a glimpse of what basketball can look like in Philadelphia again in their 114-106 over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

As years of disappointment and dysfunction have piled up, the Sixers have had a harder time making people believe. Then came a dream summer, the transformational offseason that brought Jaylen Brown and LeBron James to Philadelphia. Then came Tuesday's gutsy win at Madison Square Garden. 

Then came Thursday. All of the apathy that permeated Philadelphia basketball fans in recent years seemed to evaporate in an hour and change, with one remarkable comeback effort to topple a strong Cavaliers team that has given the Sixers a whole lot of trouble in years past. The Sixers erased a massive deficit, igniting a raucous crowd with each and every play that inched them closer to yet another loud statement victory.

They capped it off with another masterclass of a closing effort, during which James, Brown, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe all made critical plays on both ends of the floor. And the 2026-27 Sixers, somehow, are 2-0.

Takeaways from a wild night in South Philadelphia:

Sixers pass another test in crunch time

The noise may have reached its loudest when Maxey went toe-to-toe, nose-to-nose with old teammate James Harden, a subject of constant boos throughout the night. By that point, Cleveland's 29-point lead had been turned into a small Sixers advantage. The Sixers were in the midst of what would become a remarkable 13-0 run, largely powered by Brown's self-created scoring inside the arc.

After Maxey and Harden's brief skirmish – with Maxey defending his former mentor and doing a hell of a job at it – Brown scored. The crowd roared. Then Maxey drew an offensive foul. The crowd roared. Brown scored. The crowd roared. Brown roared. Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson called timeout, with his team shellshocked. A 36-point turnaround had come to fruition, all of a sudden putting Cleveland on its heels.

A Cavaliers turnover sprung Maxey for a transition layup, but Harden responded with a triple to trim the lead to four. Embiid, whose inside-the-arc dominance early in the fourth quarter set the stage for the completion of the comeback, hit a one-legged fallaway, yet another terrific play in what was a dominant half for the former NBA MVP. 

With 79 seconds left in a four-point game, Cleveland missed a pair of free throws. Maxey floated in two. James came up with a steal, hit the ball ahead to Edgecombe, Edgecombe found Brown and the lead was eight points with 44 seconds left. Atkinson called another timeout, and the outcome of the game had just about been decided.

In two games, the Sixers have gone on the road to defeat the defending champions and erased a 29-point deficit against one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. High-level talent wins in the NBA, and the Sixers just have an overwhelming amount of it. But there remains so much work ahead.

Turnovers galore haunt Sixers early

The Sixers' offensive operation in Tuesday's season opener was far from fully fleshed out, but it was simplified. For a new-look team with new ball-dominant faces, that was a positive. The Sixers did not try to do too much; they made quick and easy reads and weaponized their ability to walk into advantage possessions.

In the first half Thursday, it felt as if the Sixers were trying to solve an extremely complicated mathematical problem early on. Much was made of the team's turnover issues during the preseason; players attributed it to oversharing. That may be the right diagnosis. But turnovers are turnovers, and they put the Sixers in an irredeemable position early on against a Cavaliers team ready to feast in transition.

After a hot start to his first game as a Sixer in Philadelphia - he knocked down an early triple and dished out a no-look dime to Edgecombe - James racked up a whopping five first-half turnovers, playing uncharacteristically sloppy basketball.

Brown struggled more than anybody early, missing six of his first eight shots when many of those looks were ill-advised and committing three turnovers. Embiid missed some shots he typically makes, and for the second night in a row Maxey was the only player with a real offensive groove.

It was a ghastly first half – 15 turnovers leading to 22 easy Cavaliers points and a 12-for-35 shooting line belonging to all Sixers not named Maxey.

The Sixers have cautioned that this will take time. They are right. But then, after as rough of a first half as they could have anticipated, they found a different gear than they have any business accessing. This game was perfectly emblematic of what this season might look like for a long while: flashes of unmatched brilliance and moments of extreme weakness, all wrapped into one game.

Another halftime defensive adjustment kickstarts dominant comeback

Sixers head coach made a critical adjustment to his defensive alignment at halftime of Tuesday's game, shifting Embiid onto New York's suspect shooter at power forward and using James as his defensive center. The move helped the Sixers right the ship defensively. On Thursday, Nurse got even more aggressive making changes.

Embiid moved off of Jarrett Allen, Cleveland's rim-running center. James took that matchup, once again sliding up to the five. Rather than Embiid defending fellow big Evan Mobley, he roamed off of wing Peyton Watson. Brown, an extremely physical player, took on the challenge of guarding well above his size against Mobley. That meant Maxey had to guard his former mentor, Harden, with Edgecombe sliding over to Donovan Mitchell.

So, the entire alignment was flipped on its head. And then the same thing happened to the game. The Sixers played an unfathomably good quarter, and it all started with their defense. Everybody was flying around forcing turnovers. Those turnovers led to transition baskets and big-time shot-making.

The Sixers outscored Cleveland 37-21 in the third quarter, marking their second consecutive post-halftime eruption sparked by wide-ranging defensive changes. The Sixers infamously failed to play well after intermission time and time again a year ago; they seem to have shed that bad habit. Even with a lackluster final three minutes of that quarter when Embiid checked out of the game – Adem Bona's minutes at backup center have not been good at all – it was a dominant period for a team desperately in need of one.

In the fourth quarter, the Sixers continued to identify one Cavaliers player worth disregarding, allowing Embiid to roam and stay closer to the basket. It paid massive dividends. James is not the all-around defender at this stage of his career that Paul George might have been for this team.

But James' ability to wall up centers, if these first two games are any indication, could unlock a higher-level defense than anyone anticipated seeing from the Sixers – at least this early.

Odds and ends

Some additional notes:

• Despite going through a pregame warmup routine, Dean Wade did not play on Thursday; his ankle sprain prevented him from making his Sixers debut against his former team. Nurse spoke about Wade's importance in a matchup like this one pregame, and shortly thereafter Wade was ruled out. The Sixers certainly felt his absence.

• Nurse was more rigid with his staggers in this game; he kept Maxey and Brown paired up with James, Embiid and Edgecombe grouped together. Expect to see constant shuffling there throughout the season.

• Have two players from the same team ever received MVP chants on the same night? Embiid and Maxey both did on Thursday. The fans added a "Trust The Process" chant for good measure.

Up next: The Sixers will have a day off before hosting their first back-to-back of the season over the weekend. The Milwaukee Bucks will be in town on Saturday night.