Joel Embiid scored 27 points in his return to action, and the Sixers rolled to an easy 135 114 victory over the Indiana Pacers to close out a 2-1 road trip. Tyrese Maxey led the team with 32 points, and VJ Edgecombe chipped in an efficient 23 in another dominant game for the backcourt.

Here’s what I saw.

Embiid and Maxey, too good

The Sixers don’t need Joel Embiid to beat this version of the Indiana Pacers, but I was thrilled to see him back on the floor and getting reps with this group, no matter what. It just wasn’t clear what we could expect. Multi-week layoffs tend to bring out the worst in Embiid in the first game or two after he returns, and he was able to avoid most of the individual pitfalls against Indiana.

The best early sign for me came on the defensive end, with Embiid moving well enough in space to contest repeated attempts at the rim on Pacers drives. Indiana boasts multiple stretch bigs, who tend to get him out of sorts, and he found an almost perfect middle ground, getting out to bother shooters without losing sight of his responsibilities around the basket. Their team defense wasn’t good for reasons we’ll get to later, but I thought his contributions were excellent, especially after missing time due to injury.

Of course, it’s the offensive end where he continues to amaze after many were ready to declare his star-level career over. Having rediscovered his midrange jumper, he has gone back to being an unguardable freak inside the arc, too big to contest and too quick for bigs to keep up with. Micah Potter and Jay Huff tried their best, and Embiid made it look like they weren’t even there. And it wasn’t just a jumpshooting clinic, either, with Embiid doing an excellent job of playing off of Tyrese Maxey as a true pick-and-roll threat, gliding through traffic for layups, dunks, and fouls drawn around the hoop.

This moment, by the way, was a thing of beauty, with Maxey pulling off a beautiful split of the double before dropping it off for a two-hand slam by the big guy:

Speaking of Maxey, after a brilliant performance in Minnesota on Sunday, it initially appeared he might be taking the night off in Indiana, convinced Embiid and Co. would carry the day. Maxey had two heinous turnovers late in the first quarter, gifting the Pacers easy transition buckets, and was just 2/6 from the field after one. And that, my friends, is why they play four quarters of basketball.

Kicking off the second quarter in a three-guard look with VJ Edgecombe and Quentin Grimes, Maxey hit the Pacers with the full scoring arsenal. A pull-up three in transition became a midrange fadeaway became a ridiculous reverse layup, Maxey darting through the paint to draw oohs and aahs from the crowd (and an expected “woooowwwwwww” from the local broadcast):

Maxey forced the issue in a good way inside the arc, initiating contact to march to the free-throw line seven times in the first half alone. There are times when you’d connect this to Embiid’s presence, with Maxey able to build more speed and attack open spaces as defenses collapse on the big man, but he did a lot of his damage as a scorer in the Embiid-less shifts, dominating in space with Nurse committing to smaller, shooting-heavy lineups. There is a lesson there for the group, as we’ve now seen this juice Maxey’s scoring in back-to-back games against two very different caliber opponents.

If not for the blowout, he also likely would have marched to a triple-double. As it was, another outstanding all-around night for Maxey, who keeps inching toward his first All-NBA appearance.

Perhaps the best sign on offense was that Embiid’s 20-point half to open this game was inclusive of his teammates, with the big man looking to pass early and often against Indiana. He and Tyrese Maxey have gotten better and better at the downhill feed out of fake dribble handoffs, with Embiid bouncing the ball with precision into Maxey’s path on the way to the basket. The big man found Trendon Watford on a back cut, Quentin Grimes on a long outlet, and VJ Edgecombe for a wing three after bringing the ball up himself. Teammates have remarked all year that Embiid has bought into being part of a faster-paced, ball-moving offense, and that was on display against the Pacers even as he did his thing as a scorer.

Against a team like this, you’re focused a lot less on the result and much more on the team’s style, and I thought Embiid jumped right back into the flow of things with ease as the Sixers played a pretty appealing brand of offense. That’s a great sign for the stretch run.

VJ Edgecombe, making it look easy

I wouldn’t call this the best game of VJ Edgecombe’s excellent rookie year, but it may have been the easiest he has made it look as a scorer. Outside of an airballed three on a transition possession that I hated before it even left his hands, he was cool, calm, and collected. It was the most effortless 20+ game of his career, and I hope to see a lot more like it.

With the star duo running the show for most of the game, it was up to Edgecombe to find opportunities as the third man in, and the rookie was excellent at hunting early offense attempts without trying the wild, opponent-on-a-poster dunks that have smoked his percentages around the rim. The Pacers did a poor job tracking him on the break, with Edgecombe using a few basic but very effective crossovers to put defenders in the rearview for two points on the run.

In the halfcourt, it was more of the same from this post-break run he’s on, with Edgecombe getting to spots from the midrange and canning jumpers over defenders who were just out of reach of his shots. Perhaps it helped that Edgecombe drew a couple of early fouls on trips to the basket, creating that extra bit of hesitation as the Pacers dropped off toward the rim. But I also spy a bit of progress from him as he attacks teams inside the arc, with Edgecombe doing a better job of leveraging his strength and timing his pull-ups as he learns what teams will (and won’t) give him.

Elsewhere, he just continues to make plays all over the floor. He has been much better than expected in size mismatches on defense, standing his ground against Jarace Walker on one noteworthy post possession on Tuesday. The rebounding has become an expected feature, rather than a nice-to-have oddity. And his pace of play helps everybody out — Embiid was able to hit an easy midrange jumper in the first half after Edgecombe cut so hard after his entry that the Pacers abandoned their original plan to double, feeling that Edgecombe was a worthy threat.

I love that Edgecombe did not fade into the background because Embiid was back in the lineup, which has been an on-again, off-again problem as they juggle lineups this season. Hitting this season’s ceiling requires Edgecombe to feel he has no choice but to attack every night, and he has come out of the All-Star break looking like a new man.

Other notes

— Is the Quentin Grimes / Adem Bona combination slowly growing on the second unit? They both had outstanding nights off the bench, with Grimes offering the scoring punch and Bona wrecking shop on both ends of the floor. The latter was a bit more surprising, and there have been true signs of growth for Adem, with the second-year big making some really sharp passing reads out of trouble spots in the middle of the floor. His footwork has looked improved, too, with Bona navigating tight spaces better with each passing game (and keeping the ball secure to boot).

I wouldn’t count on these guys being a driving force for winning every night, but they bring plenty of athleticism to hit benches with and are at their best in the more defined roles that come with a healthy roster.

— My main complaint coming out of this game is that I still have no idea why the Sixers are this aggressive helping off the corners to try to disrupt drivers in the middle of the floor. I understand the philosophy is to try to generate deflections and turnovers by any means necessary, but there is no subtlety or mystery to their approach. Game after game, they gift teams wide-open corner threes in a league that has essentially mastered that shot.

What was frustrating about the defensive lapses in this one is that one schematic choice undid a lot of pretty good work elsewhere, including great individual defense from Edgecombe and a lot of encouraging sequences for Joel Embiid.

— Trendon Watford’s foul to close the first half may be the worst foul I’ve seen a Sixers player commit in the decade-plus that I’ve been covering this team professionally. 80 feet from the basket with half a second left, and you’re slapping down at the ball. You do that in a CYO game, and a full convent of nuns walks onto the floor and smacks you with rulers.

— Cam Payne, what would you say you do here, friend?