CLEVELAND — The Philadelphia 76ers were in Cleveland to take on the Cavaliers on Friday night, in a game that was, by all design, supposed to be a night of celebrations.

It was a night where the Cavaliers and their fans would celebrate the return of LeBron James, the prodigal son who began his career in Cleveland, and eventually came back to deliver the Cavs their first NBA championship.

It was, to a lesser extent, a night to celebrate the return of Dean Wade, the undrafted forward out of Kansas State who spent seven years in Cleveland, ultimately developing into a starter on back-to-back 50+ win Cavs teams.

And it was supposed to be a night to celebrate your Philadelphia 76ers, who, had they been able to pull off the win in Cleveland, would have notched the franchise’s best 10-game start since 2000-01, an incredible accomplishment considering so much of the team was still just two weeks into their NBA partnership together.

Instead, the Sixers had their first true stinker of the 2026-27 season.

The game started off poorly for the Sixers, with Joel Embiid going 0-7 from the field and LeBron James committing a pair of turnovers in the first quarter of play. Neither would ever find their footing, with the pair combining for just 14 points on 3-21 shooting from the field in what was easily the worst performance of the season for each of them.

“I know damned sure I wasn’t good at all,” James said after the game.

On a different night, the Sixers might have been able to overcome that. And for periods in the second and third quarters, thanks mostly to the brilliance of second year guard VJ Edgecombe, it looked like they might. Edgecombe finished the night with 19 points on 8-13 shooting, including an electric 15 in the second quarter, was mostly going at it alone.

“VJ started out really well. The rest of our starters, us other four, we were really bad. Really slow,” Tyrese Maxey said of the performance.

Perhaps more damning was the lack of energy to make up for it.

It is not the first performance of the season where the Sixers’ offense has struggled. In fact, after last night’s showing the Sixers’ offense now ranks just 22nd in the league, and they now rank 27th in the league in 3-pointers made per game. They are going to have to figure out this side of the court if they are to become the best versions of themselves.

“Tonight we had a lot of tough shots and a lot of jammed up possessions, more than we’ve had in the other 9 games this year,” Nick Nurse said after the game. “[The offense] was kinda one action and stand tonight.

“But I think, for the most part, leading into this game we were improving in those areas,” Nurse continued. “Just took a step back tonight.”

But that was true even during their 8-1 start to the season.

Through most of the season the Sixers have overcome their, at times, clunky offense through exceptional effort, tenacious defense, and a deadly transition attack, all of which was absent in their Friday night rematch against the Cavs.

“I think our defense wasn’t nearly moving the way we needed it to. I didn’t think we were chasing down rebounds early. Offense was stagnant because of lack of movement,” Nurse said. “It was just a poor movement game in general.”

In some ways last night was a reminder. A reminder that they’ve played precious little basketball together. A reminder that the offense is still likely a work in progress, and that the perimeter shooting is likely going to be streaky. A reminder that Joel Embiid has missed a lot of time over the past 2+ years, and that the touch on his perimeter jumper might take some time to return. A reminder that, on certain nights, LeBron James might actually look 41 years old.

But it’s also a reminder that it’s just one game, and that single performance doesn’t erase all the good that they have done up to this point.

“It felt like [a game where nothing goes right]. On both sides. We were lackluster, and they were very, very good,” Nurse concluded. “Once in a while that’s gonna happen. The important thing is is that we get over it and bounce back on Sunday. I think that always is a test when this kind of stuff happens too: what’s your response?”

Big Takeaway – Embiid’s struggles

For just the second time in 498 career games that Joel Embiid has played, he finished the night without making a shot.

After his 0-9 performance against the Cavs, Embiid is now shooting just 38.1% from the field and 10.7% (3-28!) from 3-point range on the season. His last made three came on October 22nd against these same Cleveland Cavaliers. He’s missed 17 straight attempts.

To put in perspective just how inefficient Embiid has been to start the season, there are 149 players who have played at least 200 minutes of NBA basketball so far this season. Embiid’s 39.4% effective field goal percentage, which adjusts for the value of the 3-point shot, ranks 149th out of 149. Dead last.

Effective field goal percentage is perhaps not the best metric to use for efficiency, since it doesn’t account for the ability to get to the free-throw line, which is especially relevant for a player like Joel Embiid. But sorting by True Shooting Percentage, which does factor in getting to the line, only improved Embiid’s standing slightly, bumping him up to 129th in TS% out of that 149 player sample, although it does ever-so-slightly move him ahead of teammate LeBron James (49.8%, 131st).

After the game Embiid spoke of some of the mental hurdles when going through a slump like this.

“I believe in myself, but when you’re in those moments and nothing is going in, whether it’s 3s, midrange, layups, it’s hard to just not look at yourself and be down,” Embiid said. “But you gotta keep going and stay up and keep working.”

Embiid attributes some of the struggles to how inconsistently he’s played basketball over the last few seasons.

“I used to be able to be in the gym every single day, and just getting the reps in and working on it, and that’s why it was so automatic,” Embiid said. “Now you gotta find a way to kinda mix it up because you gotta manage your load so you don’t get as much reps as possible. It’s just an adjustment. You just gotta keep working on it and hope it gets better.”

Embiid hinted at some mechanical changes that he’s noticed in his jumper that may be contributing to his struggles.

“I feel like it’s mechanical. Just gotta work on some things,” Embiid said. “I think the way I’m jumping, and my hands, it’s not what it used to be. Just gotta go back and look at the clips and see what we can change, and just try to get better.”

Even still, Embiid remains optimistic that he will return to form.

“When I’m right, I’m a great shooter,” Embiid said. “You just gotta keep working after practices, after shootarounds, and just keep putting the work in and going in the game and trying to make it happen. Whenever that picks up, it’s going to be a good time. “

Stat of the game

Stat: 26.1% of Cleveland’s plays started with a transition opportunity, per CleaningTheGlass.com. League average is roughly 15%. Cleveland’s 26.1% last night ranks in the 99th percentile of all games played.

It would be one thing if the Sixers just came out stagnant offensively last night, or if they just missed shots from the perimeter. But they got beat in transition. They got beat on the glass. They got beat with effort.

They didn’t do anything to give themselves a chance to overcome their struggles on offense.

Quotables

“We got a long way to go, especially our halfcourt offense. It just feels like everything is crowded. We gotta find a way to get [mismatches] that we can take advantage of. Just trying to get a few easy ones for each other. I think a lot of it is it just ends in an iso and we just stand and watch at times. But we also have those moments where the ball is just moving.” — Joel Embiid, on the Sixers’ inconsistent offense.

“Too many turnovers on my behalf, and I didn’t feel in a rhythm offensively…A couple of them was careless, a couple of them was trying to make the right play and not being successful at it.” — LeBron James, on his struggles against the Cavs.

“We just gotta be better. We just gotta simply be better. Tonight was not our shot. If you would have told me our team through the first 10 games of the season would be 8-2, I’d take it. For sure.” — LeBron James, on the state of the team.

“We were stagnant. Super stagnant. Just watching. It’s a building block for us. We took a step back, but we’re not gonna sit there and just sulk on this game. We have 72 more games to go. We gotta focus on the next game.” — VJ Edgecombe, on rebounding from the loss

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