Tyrese Maxey led the way for the Sixers with 26 points in a fairly easy win over the Chicago Bulls, with Philadelphia coasting to a 126-107 win. With LeBron James and Maxey spreading the wealth as passers, the 76ers had three players score 20+ points, and all five starters scored at least 15 points in a game that pushed the Sixers to a 7-1 record to open the year.

Here’s what I saw.

Everybody eats

One of the reasons I was not worried about VJ Edgecombe alongside LeBron James is that he is tailor-made to play with LeBron on the break. If you do nothing other than run the floor hard off of stops and/or turnovers, you are going to pick up some freebies along the way. You’re going to get few better examples of that phenomenon than Monday’s first half, which was a track meet that Edgecombe was the star of.

Coming off of two straight outings with a game-defining three in crunch time, Edgecombe got to start his night with much easier makes this time out. The Bulls played what will gently be called “loose” transition defense, with hit-ahead passes open down the middle of the floor for most of the first 24 minutes. Edgecombe turned into the Sixers’ version of Randy Moss on every Sixers stop, running go routes the Bulls either couldn’t or wouldn’t stop for 15 first-half points. He finished the first half a perfect 7/7 from the field, sprinkling in one catch-and-shoot three for good measure.

The Sixers were a tremendous watch on the break as a general rule, and a lot of that credit belongs to LeBron James, who kickstarted a lot of those breaks even when he didn’t come up with a direct assist. On what felt like four or five straight possessions early, he took a loose ball or rebound and snapped the ball into Tyrese Maxey’s hands as he neared halfcourt. Maxey was left with excellent options from there, and their leading scorer played setup man for a while, racking up seven assists in the first half to match LeBron.

Philadelphia’s offensive flow was generally pretty good in this one, the ball pinging around the floor and hitting different levels on almost every possession. There were deep catches for Embiid on pick-and-rolls with LeBron, catch-and-shoot looks for Jaylen Brown out of Embiid post-ups, corner threes for KCP and Dean Wade on downhill attacks from LeBron, and even a few wide-open lanes for Adem Bona to attack, fruitless as those possessions can sometimes be. This felt like the right amount of unselfishness without a ton of overpassing, which has been a tough needle for the new-look Sixers to thread up to this point.

Their undoing was what I would characterize as a lack of seriousness in the second quarter. There were a few too many possessions that felt like a star player needing to feel involved after the ball went away from them for a bit — Embiid had one particularly goofy possession at the top of the key late in the second quarter, trying to crossover his way to the promised land and quickly turning it over as a result. And some of their stars just cannot get going from beyond the arc, with LeBron, Embiid, and Maxey held without a made three all first half.

Josh Giddey’s dribble penetration was a lingering problem in this one, even though he shot the ball like hell and isn’t particularly interested in looking to score most of the time. The Sixers didn’t defend ball screens particularly well, and the Bulls did an effective job of drawing Embiid away from the rim with stretch bigs, leaving him stuck between worlds as he tried to pick between his options. Neither side of their pick-and-roll defense was particularly good, with Embiid looking the part of a man who was questionable with foot pain pregame, and their perimeter players struggling to fight over screens and stay connected.

They would mostly get their act together in the second half, exerting about 15-20% more effort and pulling away as a result. Maxey got the party going early in the third, playing inspired defense to get the transition attack rolling, and his teammates would soon follow suit. LeBron went from fast break starter to finisher, scoring a few cheapies on the break and in early offense crossmatches. They got their nightly dose of Jaylen Brown isolation scoring, too, with Brown scoring some important points during the bridge minutes at the start of the fourth, putting the game away with Embiid and LeBron resting.

(By the way, I was pretty happy with Embiid’s offensive performance, if that needs saying. Some missed shots he would like back, but I care a lot more that he was decisive and active, and he mixed it up on the glass to extend possessions and draw Chicago bodies in his direction. A great example of how he can be a hugely positive player even when his numbers are more “normal.”)

Had they run real offense in the early part of the fourth quarter instead of alternating isolation possessions between Brown and Maxey, perhaps this would have been a slightly larger, slightly easier win. Although I think the Sixers probably wish that LeBron could have rested all fourth quarter, the home crowd was treated so fireworks to end the night, with a huge LeBron and-one finish turning into a hoop-plus-the-harm for Tyrese Maxey, the killer 1-2 finisher that basically put the game to rest:

It was a tremendously balanced outing — all five scorers had at least 15 points, all had moments where they starred, and all kept their minute count relatively low. Mission accomplished.

Other notes

— On the #InjuryWatch front, Joel Embiid was on a minute restriction and ended up spending the fourth quarter sprawled out on the baseline, watching as his teammates saw the game out without him. No new issues to report.

— I like some of the off-ball actions they’re running to get Embiid and LeBron involved in high-low plays. They’re using guards like Edgecombe to screen for LeBron around the nail to set up a quick entry over the top from Embiid when they get a cross match. Even when LeBron doesn’t score there, the passing opportunities out of that spot are endless.

— Time for everybody’s least favorite nightly segment; that’s right, it’s Adem Bona corner! In customary Bona fashion, he committed a foul on his second defensive possession, strung together a few minutes of decent play, and then went right back to the headless chicken routine. In one particularly painful sequence at the end of his first shift, he took a drop-off from Jaylen Brown six feet out and barely hit the rim, and then needlessly jumped on a shot he didn’t even contest, opening up a rebounding opportunity that Chicago pounced on. Brutal to watch. 5 fouls in 14 minutes is tough to pull off.

— The Sixers apparently thought they were playing with young LeBron James in this one, with Brown throwing an oop that must have been two feet too high and Maxey throwing a terrible outlet pass that sent his vet careening into the crowd. No harm done, ultimately, but ease up, fellas.

— Great night for Anfernee Simons to get a bad shooting night out of his system. He was due after three consecutive nuclear nights from deep, and everybody else was rolling, so no harm done.