Tyrese Maxey scored 27 points, VJ Edgecombe flirted with a triple-double, and Joel Embiid had a bounce-back night on offense to lead the Sixers to a 123-112 win over the Toronto Raptors.

Here’s what I saw.

Professional win

There were a fair number of concerning moments for the Sixers in the opening quarter on Thursday. Even if we set aside the brief Joel Embiid injury scare that we’ll revisit later, they were a train wreck on both ends of the floor for the first 10 minutes of the game. Toronto got almost any shot they wanted, playing with pace and purpose in the half-court, while the Sixers bled the shot clock to force up end-clock junk. It was no surprise when you looked up at the score to see a 32-16 Raptors margin, even with the rest disadvantage and injuries for Toronto.

“Almost any shot they wanted” included a decent amount of attacking Embiid early, running pretty standard pick-and-rolls with Jakob Poeltl strolling down the lane for early points in the paint with Embiid trailing in non-threatening positions. He also baited Embiid into a cheap foul on the left block, which feels borderline impossible to do when you’re not a threat to shoot beyond six feet, and Embiid dealt with rare first-half foul trouble. At least he escaped the first half without an injury! Embiid banged knees with Ja’Kobe Walter in the first quarter and was down in pain for an extended period, eventually limping back to the locker room before making a mid-quarter return. Just your first panicky moment of the year, carry on.

A late-first flurry helped steer them back in the right direction. Tyrese Maxey scored a difficult layup in transition that I thought was a travel in real time, but whether that’s true or not, the Sixers quickly stole the ball as the Raptors tried to get into an end-of-quarter play on the other end. It bought Philly enough time to find Anfernee Simons on the right wing, and he deposited a very difficult end-of-quarter three to bring the Raptors’ lead down to just nine points.

From there, it was VJ Edgecombe who provided the lift and the highlights to get his team and the crowd back in it. It started with his defensive effort — Edgecombe came away with three first-half steals with some outstanding roaming in the passing lanes, only burned once or twice for overhelping away from the corner. His theft led to some easy buckets in transition for the likes of Jaylen Brown and Tyrese Maxey, helping to take the lid off the basket for his more accomplished vets. And, of course, he treated us all to a hellacious two-handed dunk in transition, drawing screams from the rafters:

Without downplaying feats of athleticism like those, Edgecombe’s exploits in the halfcourt were a lot more important to their team success. Toronto spent a lot of time without a true big on the floor, leaning on players like Collin Murray-Boyles and Kyle Anderson in switchable lineups, which opened up space for drivers at the rim if they could beat initial pressure. Edgecombe did an excellent job of attacking underneath, and he had a couple of his best layup finishes of the season on Thursday, not to mention another gorgeous spin move to hit the paint with speed:

Slowly but surely, the Raptors began helping more toward Edgecombe in the middle of the floor, creating setup opportunities that the second-year guard did a great job of recognizing. He was almost certainly their best passer when mismatch opportunities presented themselves for the big guy, too, with Edgecombe hitting Embiid on a lobbed entry over Collin Murray-Boyles for one of a couple of Embiid slams from the evening.

So about that big guy: Embiid found his sea legs as the game wore on. Driving past Poeltl for a light dunk at the rim in the first half turned out to be the start of a larger trend, with Embiid hitting him with more speed and intent as the game wore on. It’s the first time in a little bit that we saw him providing answers on offense that adapted with the matchup. He leveraged his size to play above CMB’s head and used his athleticism to punish the taller, slower Poeltl. At his best, Embiid is a problem solver who disarms your best coverages and defenders, and it was nice to see some jumpers go down even if his efficiency still left much to be desired.

The one “benefit” of LeBron James being out for the night was that it allowed Embiid and Tyrese Maxey to spend a good chunk of the second half running through their customary two-man game, waiving off the rest of the team to flow in and out of handoffs and pick-and-rolls, playing read-and-react basketball against a Raptors team that didn’t have great options to defend both sides of the action. Maxey has seen his shot volume fall after a high-usage start to the year, but I think he has done really well picking his spots and scoring in bursts lately. Maxey hit Toronto for an easy 25+ points without much of a three-point threat to speak of, which makes you wonder what kind of games he’ll put together when he finally breaks through from deep this season.

All told, I think this game eventually tilted toward the Sixers due to fatigue above all else. The Raptors’ legs eventually just gave out in the final quarter and a half, no surprise in the second half of a back-to-back. But give the Sixers credit for taking advantage of that with a few timely deflections and much improved team shooting in the second half, taking care of business without playing an A+ game.

Other notes

— Even as Embiid tries to play through various issues, he is still the biggest difference between Philly being a viable defensive team and a revolving door. Individual lapses

— It was a good night for bench shooters to have a good night, with most of the starting lineup completely useless from beyond the arc. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope hit back-to-back threes in the first half and then ceded sniper duties to Anfernee Simons, who was able to end an extended cold spell with four big triples against the Raptors. He only needs to see a single shot go down in order to think he’s going to make about 10 more, which was part of why his buzzer-beating jumper to end the first felt especially meaningful. This was the start of the avalanche:

Tremendously fun player to watch when he’s rolling.

— I would give Jabari Walker a chance to play more minutes at the four when Adem Bona comes back and presumably serves as the backup center. He is a smart player who tends to make things happen, and he’s put enough work into his shot to earn some trust as an off-ball spacer. It’ll help them save a few extra rest minutes for the frontcourt guys like LeBron, too.

— Good box score game for Jaylen Brown, but I can’t say I particularly enjoyed watching a lot of it. Some of his on-ball turnovers are a sight to behold.