PHILADELPHIA – When the Sixers had just been robbed of a hard-earned victory, Trendon Watford spoke up in the huddle.

"Five-minute game," Watford kept saying to his teammates. "Five-minute game."

In reality, the Sixers should have beaten the Houston Rockets in 48 minutes on Thursday night. But when the officiating crew missed a goaltending violation that should have netted Tyrese Maxey a game-winner, the Sixers had to flush all of the frustration and incredulity and just go win the game.

They did just that, outscoring Houston 13-7 in the "five-minute game" and escaping with an emotional and impressive home victory in overtime that probably should not have required 53 intense minutes. It was a cohesive and collective effort from start to finish.

In this week's Friday film, a breakdown of the four players who got the Sixers across the finish line against Houston:

Joel Embiid's 45-minute triple-double

As Embiid walked into his locker room after the Sixers' win, he made a declaration of sorts.

"There's no way I should ever play more minutes than Tyrese," Embiid said.

Maxey's response: "No, that's great. You should do it more often."

Sixers head coach Nick Nurse was aggressive with Embiid's minutes from the outset on Thursday. Embiid, who before Thursday had topped out at just under 36 minutes in regulation (his season-high in minutes was 40 in an overtime game earlier this month), surpassed the 40-minute mark before Maxey's layup hit the backboard and then the hands of Rockets defenders. But without the goaltending call to end the game, the Sixers had Embiid out there for the entirety of overtime after he played the entirety of the fourth quarter. Before the game, Nurse said he is most concerned with Embiid's games played and minutes totals. How about 45:36, then?

"It's certainly a pretty big step forward, for sure," Nurse said before a smile emerged. "...It's great to see. Getting in shape here pretty soon if he's playing that many minutes."

Embiid has typically lost steam at a moment's notice in games like this during the 2025-26 season. There were a few shaky plays in the fourth quarter, but that never really happened. Embiid, in his first triple-double of the season, pummeled Houston with his size. Down the stretch of the game, he leveraged the attention being paid to him to generate open looks for Maxey and others:

Whatever motivated Embiid on Thursday, it worked.

"He's starting to feel it and he's getting better. That competitive juice, everything is starting to flow," George said. "You see it even with him at practice; you could see he was coming back, he was starting to form back into the Joel Embiid that we all have seen dominate in this league. It was definitely refreshing, just from a personal level: dealing with injuries and [knowing] how that takes a toll on you, it's just always great to see someone start to get back to themself, but because it is taxing and it wears on you."

On the two-year anniversary of his 70-point game, Embiid came armed with jokes.

"I was just saying after the game that maybe I should have a baby on Jan. 22," Embiid said. "It seems to be a good day, so me and my wife, when I get home, we're probably going to talk about making those calculations and make sure that we try to have a baby on Jan. 22."

Tyrese Maxey finally finds himself again

The Sixers now have one game left out of six in a row on their home floor, and Maxey had not been his best self during the first four games. He shot 37.5 percent from the field across those games and continually failed to get the kind of rhythm that has often seemed natural to him this season. With another slow start, Maxey seemed destined for yet another inefficient night on Thursday.

But after a strong closing effort in the first half – Maxey made big plays on both ends of the floor to put the Sixers ahead at halftime – it was vintage Maxey in the second half. He lamented his 2-for-10 three-point shooting line but was outstanding inside the arc. Maxey did not just score 26 points after halftime, but 17 across the fourth quarter and overtime. He had timely clutch baskets over and over, including a handful of them after the shot that should have put the game away at the end of regulation:

A performance like this from Maxey does not even feel like it is secondary to other stories, but like a non-story because he plays at such a high level so frequently. That fact is a testament to his consistent brilliance this season, which earned him the first All-Star Game starting nod of his NBA career. What Maxey is more proud of is that he has established a standard for effort and focus within the team that did not exist last season (the 2024-25 Sixers went 24-58; the 2025-26 Sixers are now 24-19). Now, his team has – for now – successfully fended off the injury bug.

"All of us being healthy feels so good," Maxey said. "It's a good feeling knowing we have so many options that we can go to."

MORE: Maxey recalls the day he began evolving into the Sixers' new leader

Paul George steps up down the stretch

An example of what Maxey is talking about: a nine-time All-Star in George scoring only four points and dealing with foul trouble in regulation, and it not being a death sentence. However, the Sixers would not have won this game without multiple clutch plays George made on both ends of the floor.

"It was great that he pulled that off, considering where he was going into overtime," Nurse said. "...10 minutes in the first half or something because of foul trouble, was hard for him to ever really get into the game. Tried to get him into it a little bit and call a couple plays for him, but most of the time they were switching and it ended up going back inside to Joel on some of those, so we didn't really get any looks there."

Then came a pair of big-time jumpers from George and two defensive stops that might have been even more significant:

"He got into the game," Nurse said. "He's got to touch it some, he's got to score it some, and then we'll see some defensive stuff out of him, too."

When George's Hall of Fame career comes to an end, his status as a two-way star will be fundamental to his legacy. And at age 35, many years and injuries later, George has maintained a stunningly high baseline of defensive production for this team. Because Embiid and Maxey can handle such significant offensive workloads, George has been able to really dial into his defensive acumen and just fill in the gaps when needed on offense. He has embraced it.

"Defensively, I pride myself to be the best version and be the best defender for this group," George said. "Obviously, we have a wide range of great defenders on this team, but I just take pride on that end. I think I can win every possession defensively, at least that's how I go try to play defense... to get a stop every time I'm on that side."

MORE: How do you fit alongside Embiid? His teammates explain

Kelly Oubre Jr., back in the starting lineup, does his thing

After the game, Nurse explained what he called a "tough" decision to remove Dominick Barlow from the starting lineup. Barlow, who had not come off the bench since November, was replaced by Kelly Oubre Jr., whose recent run of scoring outbursts continued on Thursday.

"Barlow has played outstanding and played outstanding again tonight," Nurse said, "but Kelly obviously has been a pretty big spark plug, getting to the rim, guarding a really tough matchup every night as well. So, went that way, and he's pretty experienced as well."

Nurse described the decision as performance-based rather than matchup-based, likely an indicator that he is not planning on toggling between Oubre and Barlow in that spot. For now, it belongs to the veteran Oubre. Barlow will still be an important piece of all of this, and Nurse figures to maximize his amount of time sharing the floor with Embiid. But Oubre provides so much more offensive firepower, which has been on display of late. Oubre has registered three consecutive excellent and efficient scoring performances, with Thursday's being the best of all:

Nurse's hope is that, in a starting lineup that is suddenly much smaller, Oubre and George can play well enough consistently enough on the defensive end of the floor to keep them moving in the right direction so the tidy offensive fit can do the rest of the talking. Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Oubre, George and Embiid appear to be the five best players on the Sixers right now. Why not invest time in making them all cohesive?

"If KO and PG are going to give that effort on defense," Nurse said, "...now we've got a group that's playing at both ends."

George, who has constantly showered Oubre with praise since arriving in Philadelphia, called Oubre his "running mate" on Thursday and expressed excitement to be back out there with him. Oubre went down with a long-term knee injury in what was the final game before George's season debut; the two never shared the floor this season until earlier this month.

Why does George have so much appreciation for Oubre? It dates back to their years of intense matchups as opponents.

"He puts his heart and soul in every time he steps on that floor," George said. "...He's a warrior, man."

MORE: Odds of Oubre and Quentin Grimes trades, more on trade deadline