March 23, 2026
Bill Streicher/Imagn Images
VJ Edgecombe and NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander squared off on Monday night.
PHILADELPHIA – Normally, if a lead guard sets a career high in three-point makes against the NBA's best defense while scoring 35 points, there is a good chance fans will head home happy.
But on Monday, VJ Edgecombe's long-range eruption and continued progress as a primary ball-handler did not give the Sixers a chance to win. They ran into Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the buzzer that is the Oklahoma City Thunder. Despite red-hot three-point shooting from Edgecombe and others, the Sixers could not make any inroads against Oklahoma City's historic defense.
To the Sixers' credit, they played hard, with a noticeably raucous crowd behind them. But Gilgeous-Alexander and a loaded Thunder squad were far too much to overcome for a team still missing most of its best players.
Takeaways from the Sixers' 123-103 loss:
Unsurprisingly, McCain received a strong ovation from the Sixers fans in attendance when he checked into Monday's game midway through the first quarter:
Jared McCain is in the game. pic.twitter.com/TS0b8rjLDK
— Adam Aaronson (@SixersAdam) March 23, 2026
Perhaps even less surprising to those familiar with how things usually go here, McCain made his presence felt immediately. On his first touch, McCain buried a tough fallaway triple in the left corner. He flashed his signature three-point celebration in the face of former teammate Andre Drummond. On the very next possession, he connected on a triple moving to his right. He pounded his chest and let out an expletive or two. No matter what he said beforehand, it was obvious this game was going to mean more to him:
— Lopo (@bballforpeople) March 23, 2026
The reaction on the Sixers' bench after McCain's second make was really something:
Even on a night during which McCain's impact was otherwise muted – he knocked down a key three in the fourth quarter, but that was his only other basket – it was ironic that after the Sixers traded McCain in part due to a glut of guards, they lost to his new team in part because they had little to no ball-handling available. Not only does Tyrese Maxey remain out, but Quentin Grimes was a late scratch; he got sick. MarJon Beauchamp, in his 10th appearance as a member of the Sixers, made his first start, teaming with Edgecombe in the backcourt.
McCain, meanwhile, has carved out a secure role for the defending champions, despite their guard rotation including the best player in the NBA in Gilgeous-Alexander and anywhere from four to six other high-quality options, depending on one's perspective.
"He's a great guy. He's fit in very well with the group. It's felt like he's been here longer than he has," Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said before the game. "I think that's a credit to him, and I think it's a credit to our team. He's come in for great respect for this group of guys, what they've accomplished. He's done so with confidence, though. He hasn't been deferential. He's played aggressively. confidently."
Daigneault said he got to know McCain during the 2024 NBA Draft process, and based on their interactions then he knew McCain would be a strong culture fit with Oklahoma City when he got word of the trade. And the on-court fit, clearly, has been just as seamless.
It did not take a detective, or even a well-trained basketball scout, to see that Monday's game represented a total mismatch, particularly when it came to the Sixers' chances of consistently generating decent looks offensively. The Sixers were without Maxey (finger) and Grimes (illness), plus Paul George (suspension), Kelly Oubre Jr. (elbow) and Joel Embiid (oblique).
So, it was Edgecombe and friends going up against a defense which is not just the NBA's best, but also has become historically great in recent years. Edgecombe more than held his own – the career-high in threes helped a lot – but the Thunder applied relentless ball pressure and displayed their immense versatility, and the Sixers did not have much in the form of half-court offensive juice. It was a complete handling on that end of the floor; Oklahoma City having a strong offensive night was merely an added bonus for the defending champions.
The fact that the Sixers had such a troublesome offensive night is even more telling considering they shot quite well from three-point range. Inside the arc, they only had a few brief spurts – once at the beginning of each half and once at the start of the fourth quarter – in which there was any palpable cohesion.
Of course, this was the perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances: the Sixers had as little manpower as they have had all season and went up against a defense that is without peers. That Edgecombe was able to shake free for enough buckets to keep the game from getting out of hand for so long is a victory in itself. But for one of the first times all season, Oklahoma City was at full strength; star wing Jalen Williams returned from a long absence to finally reunite the Thunder's primary starting five. It was too much to overcome.
Oklahoma City has its full starting lineup — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Lu Dort, Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein — available for just the sixth time this season. That group has only played 41 minutes all year, and now will try to get ramped up for the playoffs.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) March 23, 2026
Just as the Sixers have been handed a few valuable wins by their schedule, they were handed a hopeless task on Monday night against a brilliant opponent. The question: Will Embiid be back the next time they take the floor? If so, their ceiling and floor rise dramatically, especially when it comes to half-court offense.
Two additional notes:
• While all of the hysteria on Monday surrounded McCain, do not forget about Isaiah Joe, a former second-round pick of the Sixers who after being prematurely waived by the team has become a high-level role player for the Thunder. Joe, one of the best bench shooters in the entire NBA, has been outstanding lately. He, too, made a three on his first shot of the game.
• In what can be qualified as a mild surprise, Sixers head coach Nick Nurse went with not just Beauchamp in the starting five, but also fellow two-way wing Dalen Terry in his bench mix, with Jabari Walker not entering the game until the second half. It was not all that fun of a game for Nurse, who was issued a technical foul during the second quarter:
Nick Nurse shouting at the refs (about OKC): "They are NOT perfect. They are not perfect. They foul too! They foul too, though!" pic.twitter.com/qjT9K49uGM
— MrBuckBuck (@MrBuckBuckNBA) March 24, 2026
Up next: George will be back on the floor on Wednesday night, returning from his 25-game suspension as the Sixers play host to the Chicago Bulls.
MORE: McCain's full comments on returning to Philadelphia
