December 19, 2025
Brad Penner/Imagn Images
Tyrese Maxey suited up for the first time in 12 days on Friday night, and he did so at an arena where he has plenty of history.
NEW YORK – When the Sixers filed into Madison Square Garden a few minutes after 10:00 a.m. on Friday, Joel Embiid – then questionable to face the New York Knicks in the evening due to an illness – was one of the many members of the team's traveling party to arrive for morning shootaround. Eight hours later, Embiid, who had already been ruled out with both an illness and right knee injury management, did not even have a locker at the world's most famous arena. In spite of Embiid's absence, the Sixers notched quite possibly their most impressive win of the season, a 116-107 triumph over the NBA Cup champion New York Knicks.
The two teams went back and forth for much of the action; no team ever built a double-digit lead. But thanks to Tyrese Maxey's prolonged brilliance in his return to action, some flashes of promise from struggling young players, excellent defense from Paul George, a critical burst from VJ Edgecombe in the third quarter and three Andre Drummond corner triples (!), it was the Sixers on top as the buzzer sounded.
As expected, the fourth quarter featured haymakers on both sides, with neither team ever able to create any sense of comfort. A raucous crowd grew tense as the tides shifted, and eventually the Sixers sent them to the exits, with the backcourt duo of Maxey and Edgecombe being particularly dominant in clutch time.
How the Sixers managed to come away with a hard-fought victory down the stretch, plus Maxey's stellar return and more from the Mecca of Basketball:
A terrific stretch from a makeshift lineup of Edgecombe, Quentin Grimes, Justin Edwards, Jabari Walker and Adem Bona to close out the last five minutes of the third quarter put the Sixers in position to win in the fourth quarter; that lineup won its stretch by one point despite Maxey and George both being on the bench. It was a monumental stretch of competence at a time when they could have collapsed. Edgecombe's timely scoring led the way again, but Bona was particularly impressive, shaking off a brutal first half in which he committed three fouls in as many minutes and playing one of his most well-rounded stretches of the year.
It is impossible to tell the story of the opening minutes of Friday's final frame without first showing Maxey's gorgeous step-back triple, devastating a tremendous perimeter defender in Mikal Bridges:
TYRESE MAXEY! pic.twitter.com/wJpLz8liWy
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) December 20, 2025
Sixers head coach Nick Nurse is always eager to ride the momentum if a player initially expected to be in there for a few minutes finds a groove. So with Bona surging, Nurse let him go, and the second-year center rewarded his coach by blocking an OG Anunoby dunk attempt at the rim – only after Nurse won a challenge – and continuing to guard the rim.
All the while, it was Maxey whose exploits continued – more on those to come – and Jared McCain, who after scoring two McCain-like buckets in the first quarter, hit a momentum-shifting corner three before carving out another bucket in the mid-range. He bullied his way there again and drew an important foul, knocking down two shots immediately after. It is not saying very much at all, but Friday's game represented McCain's most encouraging performance in a while by a lot.
Thanks in large part to rebounding extraordinaire Mitchell Robinson, who crushed the Sixers on the glass all night long and even made a bunch of free throws, New York stuck around the entire time. Knicks fans were clamoring to take over the game, but every time they started to turn the volume up, the Sixers had an answer. With about three minutes left, the rookie Edgecombe buried a pull-up mid-range jumper, then connected on a three and gestured for everybody to quiet down. Then, with his team up by six points inside of the two-minute mark, Edgecombe soared in for a put-back dunk. It was yet another flurry of mature moments for a 20-year-old with far more of them than anybody would have expected, and it was the dagger.
It had been 12 days since the Sixers' sixth-year star had last played in an NBA game; he missed both games during a stretch in which the Sixers only played two contests in 11 days. But his illness has subsided and it was immediately clear that he was prepared to play with a level of intent that makes him almost impossible for opposing defenses to contain. Maxey possesses a lethal combination of off-the-dribble burst and pull-up shooting accuracy; when he plays with force and creates an early rhythm for himself, other teams are at his mercy.
On Friday, that included the Knicks, whose best efforts and best defenders could not stop the soon-to-be two-time All-Star from scoring at all three levels. Maxey first scored in the paint, then drained a pair of triples and started to find his spots in the mid-range, too. Maxey did not have a tiny assist total, but the constant pressure he put on defenders created tons of open looks for his teammates. He also continues to provide defensive value, pulling off another signature pick six:
that's our guy 🤩
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) December 20, 2025
🗳️ VOTE RESE: https://t.co/YrpvJv7Vf5 pic.twitter.com/RntU64ZHsO
One play that will not generate any highlights or box score stats for Maxey, but was enormously valuable: after Bridges hit a three in the third quarter, Maxey noticed that New York was not all the way back defensively. He hurried the inbound passer to get him the ball and almost instantaneously got the ball into the frontcourt, where the Sixers ended up with an easy basket.
Maxey has always had his tremendous shooting and speed. What has enabled him to leap from star to potential superstar, though, is a more cerebral approach to the game and a more attentive focus on how he can leverage his outlier traits to the greatest possible extent.
Some additional notes:
• Nurse reaffirmed his confidence in Edwards pregame; the hometown kid's struggles have been so pronounced of late that he was assigned to the G League on his 22nd birthday. But on Tuesday, Edwards made his lone game with the Delaware Blue Coats a major success, scoring 37 points and nabbing six steals. Perhaps it provided him the confidence he was clearly lacking. Edwards knocked down wing triples on his first two touches of Friday's game at the 10th and final member of Nurse's rotation:
back to back threes for @Jedwards3_ 🎯 pic.twitter.com/u9SM22kAxB
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) December 20, 2025
• More on Embiid: he was initially questionable for Friday's game with an illness, but in the afternoon, he was ruled out and given the additional tag of right knee injury management. It was the first time his right knee issue, which caused eight consecutive absences earlier in the season, has been on an injury report in over two weeks. Nurse provided the following comments on it before Friday's game:
Asked Nick Nurse about the timeline or Joel Embiid’s injury designations and whether or not there are any new issues/symptoms in his right knee. Full exchange: https://t.co/3hqX5TNef8 pic.twitter.com/YJvPQWFU4l
— Adam Aaronson (@SixersAdam) December 19, 2025
Up next: The Sixers will get right back to work on their home floor on Saturday night when Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks come to Philadelphia.
