After riding an incredibly hot Tyrese Maxey performance for most of the night, the Sixers had one of their worst second-half collapses in a season that has been full of them.

That was all wiped away with one of the most chaotic, and exhilarating, final nine seconds of play that you’ll see in a regular season game.

VJ Edgecombe, who had been struggling on offense for most of the night, collected Tyrese Maxey’s blocked potential game-winner and, in one motion, laid it back in with a second left to give the Sixers a one point lead. Former Sixer De’Anthony Melton then sprinted down the floor in a last second attempt to try to catch the Sixers sleeping in a moment of pandemonium, with another former Sixer, Buddy Hield, hitting him with a perfectly placed outlet pass to go the length of the court in under a second of game time to get what looked like a clean game-winning layup.

But Tyrese Maxey made one of the most athletic, impressive, and climatic chase-down blocks in recent memory to seal the win.

The sequence was one of the most exciting nine seconds of play that I can remember, at least in a regular season game, pulled off with incredible feats of athleticism and sheer force of will from the backcourt that the Sixers have so much invested in, plays that salvaged an almost indefensible second-half collapse that was one of the most frustrating halves of basketball that the team has played all year.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

— Charles Dickens.

Here’s what I saw.

Stagnant offense, turnovers cost them again
The Sixers held a 22-point lead at the half, playing great team defense and riding yet another incredible Tyrese Maxey performance. They appeared ready to cruise to an easy win against a very undermanned Golden State Warriors team playing without stars Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler.

But then the third quarter happened. As a reminder, the Sixers have been one of the worst third quarter teams in the league all year, with a -22.5 net rating in the third so far this season.

And then those struggles continued into the first half of the 4th.

Golden State erased that entire 22-point halftime lead, finally taking a 93-92 lead with 2:39 left in the 4th. After the Sixers showed their typical carelessness in the third, where they committed an atrociously bad seven turnovers, Golden State started ramping up their full court pressure, flummoxing a guard heavy Sixers team that should be well-equipped to handle the pressure. Instead, the Sixers, especially non-Maxey Sixers guards, spent most of the second half barfing all over themselves.

What was frustrating about this one is that a lot of them came from typically reliable decision makers, with VJ Edgecombe and Jared McCain coughing the ball up in key spots. The Sixers struggled to consistently even get a look up at the rim, and the combination of live ball turnovers and late clock desperation attempts allowed the Warriors to get out in transition, helping get that offense, which struggled so mightily in the first half, going.

I don’t know why it happens, but watching a well-executed first half offense devolve into the worst version of iso-ball, so consistently, in the second half is really tough to watch. This collapse should have never happened, especially not against a Warriors squad so bereft of offensive talent.

The Sixers ended up snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, with VJ Edgecombe collecting a blocked Tyrese Maxey jumper for the game-winning layup. That prevented catastrophe. But boy was that second-half performance unsettling. Even with the win, it’s tough to get that out of my head.

Tyrese Maxey is on another level
Back in that 2023-24 season, before his injury, Joel Embiid made a habit of running up 30 point games in the first three quarters of play, knowing full well that with the way the team was cruising, there’s a chance that he’d get the full fourth quarter off with some old school load management.

That obviously didn’t happen tonight, as the Sixers downright collapsed in the fourth, but with the way Maxey was putting up points with ease and controlling the game, it had that kind of feeling for much of the first three quarters of play.

Once Tyrese Maxey starting cooking midway through the first quarter, he never stopped. Maxey scored 10 straight points for the Sixers in the middle of the first, helping ignite what would eventually turn into a 22-0 Sixers run to blow the game (temporarily) open.

With the step-back jumper operating on all cylinders, Maxey started to attack the basket, setting up some tough finishes inside, floaters to counter the defense, and kickout passes to get his teammates some quality looks, even if they rarely converted them.

When all was said and done Tyrese Maxey delivered another strong performance in his MVP caliber season, finishing with 35 points on 13-27 shooting, including 4-10 from deep.

The rest of the backcourt didn’t do nearly enough, with Grimes, McCain and Edgecombe combining for just 29 points on 27 shots, while committing 10 turnovers. But Tyrese Maxey almost single-handedly carried them for the first three quarters, leaving them in position to escape with a win.

Joel Embiid’s up-and-down game

Joel Embiid finished the night with 12 points, albeit on 5-13 shooting, to go along with 6 rebounds and 3 assists in just 25 minutes of play.

Embiid missed all six of his 3-point attempts. At one point in the 3rd, after having just drilled a pair of midrange jumpers but missing his sixth three of the game, he threw his hands up in frustration. The touch just wasn’t there from deep, even if he had some real nice moments at the foul line extended area.

There will be some debate over how much you want Embiid launching from the perimeter, especially as he’s now shooting just 24.3% from deep in the early going. I do think that by shifting a lot of those DHO and pick-and-roll actions out on the perimeter, it helps open things up for the Sixers’ young guards. And all of Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe and Jared McCain had moments running the pick-and-roll with Embiid early on, even if the shots weren’t going in.

But at some point, the shots do have to go in.

Defensively, I thought Embiid had one of his better stretches in the first half, multiple times making a contest and being able to rotate back to help out on the glass, something that he hasn’t really been able to do, or even really tried to do, all that much so far this year. He challenged shots at the rim, cut off driving lanes, and had more of an impact defensively than he did in the prior game against Atlanta. I didn’t see that same level of mobility or activity after intermission, but it was a start at least.

Dom Barlow’s contribution

Dom Barlow finished with just 6 points on the night. Dom Barlow was indispensable for the Sixers tonight.

The Sixers have long needed someone of Barlow’s skill sets: a multi-positional forward who could switch on the perimeter, dig down on drivers and still have the athleticism and size to recovery to the perimeter, help provide some weakside rim protection (even more important now that Embiid isn’t the rim protector he previously was) and crash the glass. Barlow did all of that and more in a very important role here on Thursday night.

Barlow finished the game with 13 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocked shots in 34 minutes of play, but his game was even more important than that. Time after time Barlow would lock his man up on the perimeter, walling him off and closing down all driving lanes, forcing the Warriors to kick the ball out and reset their offense, just with less and less time left on the shot clock to work with. Again, the Warriors didn’t throw out their A-team against the Sixers tonight, but for a team that has had so much trouble denying dribble penetration all year, Barlow is a very welcomed addition.

The Warriors, without Curry and Butler, stink
The defensive performance from the Sixers was encouraging, but obviously has to be taken with at least a little bit of a grain of salt: the Warriors, without Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler, absolutely stink on offense.

The Warriors game into the game averaging just 102 points per 100 possessions with neither Butler or Steph on the floor, which ranks in the bottom 1st percentile of all lineups leaguewide. Watching that first quarter, where the Warriors went 7+ minutes without scoring a point, and I’m surprised it was that high.

Give the Sixers credit for executing on defense, but we do have to remember the context.