March 01, 2026
Paul Rutherford/Imagn Images
Tyrese Maxey made just four of his 18 shot attempts in the first half of Sunday's game in Boston.
For eight minutes on Sunday night, the Sixers looked stellar. From there, it all unraveled.
The Sixers' three-game winning streak is over, as they lost to the Celtics by a final score of 114-98 in Boston on Sunday night. They staged a spirited push to begin the game, but after a pair of early Boston timeouts the Celtics completely took over the game.
With Joel Embiid sidelined for the first of at least three games due to a right oblique strain, Tyrese Maxey had one of his least efficient performances in recent memory. A collection of tenacious Celtics perimeter defenders took turns hounding him all night long, and he was forced into taking plenty of bad shots, then missed many of his best looks.
So, after those eight minutes of glory came 40 minutes of pain. Maxey found his groove later on; VJ Edgecombe was the Sixers' best player from start to finish. The Sixers' backcourt led a valiant comeback effort, but it was an unfortunate case of too little, too late.
Thoughts on the 60th game of the Sixers' 2025-26 regular season:
When news broke that Paul George had been suspended for 25 games, it was obvious that the Sixers were going to spend the better part of two months sorely missing the nine-time All-Star – not because George is an elite talent these days, but because he served as a stabilizing force for this team on both ends of the floor.
On offense, George was the best off-ball player to play with Maxey and Embiid, but also the team's most reliable source of secondary scoring and shot creation in the absence of either or both of those players. George and Edgecombe were leading successful lineups without either of the stars, which allowed Maxey and Embiid to share the floor more often and lean on their lethal two-man game. He was better than any supporting cast member on the Sixers at toggling between on- and off-ball roles.
Defensively, George's presence alone turned the Sixers' season around. They enjoyed a strong start to the season despite struggling quite a bit defensively, and as soon as George made his season debut the team turned around its fortunes on that end of the floor. George is not the elite stopper he once was, but he was a quality option across the positional spectrum and provided communication which drew rave reviews from coaches and teammates alike.
So, as the Sixers ceded open threes to a Celtics team that thrives from beyond the arc, and as Maxey posted a 4-for-18 shooting line in the first half before coming around in the second half and desperately looking for any sort of assistance outside of Edgecombe, and as Sixers head coach Nick Nurse desperately tried to piece together viable lineups, it really felt – perhaps more than ever before – like the Sixers had a George-sized hole in their rotation.
The Sixers are officially more than halfway through George's suspension; he has served 13 games to date. He will be eligible to return on March 25, and another dozen games are coming for which George is not allowed to step in the arena. The Sixers have managed his absence reasonably well, but as Sunday's game showed, they need George to take down high-level competition.
As he has typically done this season, Sixers head coach Nick Nurse inserted Drummond into the starting lineup in the absence of Embiid. The thinking has been that since teams are usually stronger in their starting units and more athletic off the bench, Drummond is a better fit to open games and Adem Bona is a better fit to come off the bench. But starter or not, the Sixers need both Drummond and Bona to give them quality minutes when Embiid is sidelined.
For the youngster Bona, the arrow has been pointing up for months. But for the veteran Drummond, the last few months have been dreadful. He rebounded from a brutal season last year and gave the Sixers very important lifts early on in 2025-26, looking just mobile enough to get by along with his typical dominance on the glass and a newfound ability to knock down three-point shots from the corner. But his movement skills have fallen off a cliff, and for months he has largely been a liability because of it.
The Sixers outscored Boston by seven points in Drummond's opening stint, which lasted nearly eight minutes. It felt like a major swing, even that early in the game, because staying afloat during Drummond's playing time has become quite a challenge. It felt like the Sixers won those minutes in spite of Drummond, though; aside from an and-one via the offensive glass his impact was muted and he remained vulnerable on defense against a Celtics team with a tremendous understanding of how to space the floor.
Bona gave the Sixers a strong lift midway through the first quarter, but ended the opening frame in foul trouble. That necessitated more Drummond minutes, which did not go well individually or collectively. The Sixers went from comfortably ahead to trailing, with Celtics starting center Neemias Queta absolutely obliterating his matchup with Drummond. Queta had 16 points and 10 rebounds before the seven-minute mark of the second quarter, including a run of eight straight points for Boston – half of which came courtesy of a Drummond miscue. This was not Drummond's worst game – in fact, by the look of the box score it was one of his better outings of late – but his limitations as a mover were incredibly evident.
Just how difficult has it been to stomach Drummond's lackluster minutes? Plus/minus is not strictly an individual statistic, but Sunday's game marked the 11th time in the last 13 games that the Sixers were outscored with Drummond on the floor.
It is one thing to not be a positive-impact player – especially in a role like Drummond's – but to be such a consistent minus when any Embiid injury forces him into the starting lineup is becoming a tough pill to swallow. At this point, the lone alternative would be starting power forward Dominick Barlow and backup forward Jabari Walker sliding up to small-ball center more often. Barlow has done it a few times over the last week or so after barely doing it for months – Nurse characterized those minutes as "not bad" – but with George still suspended for another few weeks, Nurse does need both of those players to help fill the hole at the four.
Some additional notes:
• All three of the Sixers' two-way players were inactive for Sunday's game; none of them pulled a double-header after helping lead the Delaware Blue Coats to a win earlier in the day.
• The lone positive of Drummond's night: a pair of early corner triples. Yet after the second one, Drummond was issued a technical foul after performing his typical celebration:
Andre Drummond hits his second triple of the evening... and immediately gets a technical for mimicking a gun shooting with his hand. pic.twitter.com/80AmoJFWKX
— Liberty Ballers (@Liberty_Ballers) March 2, 2026
• Edgecombe's hustle was incredible all night long, including a flurry of high-intensity plays in the fourth quarter. One of those was this acrobatic save in which the 20-year-old landed in the lap of the one Philadelphia fan in the vicinity and kicked a fan in the face in the process:
Edgecombe dives into the seats saving the ball, accidentally catches a fan in the face — immediately checks on her and gives her a hug after the play. Pure hustle and pure class. 👏 #ClassAct #76ers pic.twitter.com/qpltSHw3GQ
— Michael (@Michael61690772) March 2, 2026
Up next: The Sixers will return home for a back-to-back in Philadelphia, beginning when the San Antonio Spurs come to town on Tuesday.
