Nov 28, 2025; Brooklyn, New York, USA; Philadelphia 76ers guard Jared McCain (20) celebrates his three point shot against the Brooklyn Nets during the second quarter at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
The Sixers earned their 10th win of the season behind a near triple-double from Tyrese Maxey, a season-high 20 points for Jared McCain and 19 points and nine assists from Quentin Grimes.
Here are sixth thoughts on the victory.
A game after squaring up with Wendell Carter Jr. in an absolute stomping at the hands of the Orlando Magic, Andre Drummond was prepared to do the job the Sixers need him to do in Joel Embiid's stead.
The Nets trend big but don't get to the rim very often. Even so, Drummond was ready for them at the rim. On Brooklyn's first possession of the game, Drummond swatted away a shot at the rim by Nets rookie Egor Demin and then blew up an alley-oop when Brooklyn retained possession after the aforementioned block.
Drummond disrupted another shot at the rim in transition a few minutes later, toeing the line between the ball and the guy sprinting behind him to be available for a play at the hoop in the two-on-one.
It made what happened in the second quarter sting even more. He and Kyle Lowry (yes, he played second-quarter minutes) collided at the rim going for a rebound and appeared to make knee-to-knee contact.
Drummond immediately collapsed to the floor in pain, clutching his knee. He was helped off the court and later seen in a wheelchair. By halftime, Philadelphia ruled him out for the rest of the night with a sprained right knee.
The Sixers are barely treading water without Embiid. But even if Embiid was available, they'd be relying upon Drummond for meaningful minutes with Adem Bona still not ready to be a full-time primary backup big. Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker are not big enough. Trendon Watford is out for the foreseeable future with an adductor strain. Drummond is perhaps the only player not named Maxey that the Sixers could not afford to lose for more than the rest of Friday night.
It's concerning as of this writing. It will remain concerning even when he returns because Philadelphia needs Drummond to continue to rebound the ball at the rate he has thus far this season.
But for the purposes of this game, all the concerns played out practically immediately.
All of Bona, Barlow and Walker picked up three fouls rapidly after Drummond's departure, the Nets wisely applying rim pressure with the Sixers' frontcourt depth in dire straits.
Nick Nurse even gave Johni Broome an opportunity with the situation approaching emergency levels. He, too, proceeded to commit three fouls in less than five minutes.
Here's the thing — it only gets more difficult after this game. As was said above, the Nets don't shoot at the rim all that often. They gave the Sixers fits in the paint in the second quarter. If that's the Nets, it doesn't project favorably against most other teams.
If Drummond has to miss any time (which, how could he not with a sprained knee?), the Embiid bubble-wrap treatment has to end or this team is going to have a major problem.
Grimes is everything you expect a sixth man to be. Unabashedly confident. Forever aggressive. A flamethrower at his best. An internal saboteur at his worst.
It was shaping up to be a Grimes stinker until about midway through the third quarter. He was clanking jumpers and turning the ball over on virtually touch, sending the Nets in transition and breathing life back into Brooklyn after they previously looked dead.
But Grimes then channeled his futility into more aggression, sharpening his dribble and choosing his driving lanes more carefully. The jumper was never there in this game, but Grimes got to the rim a ton in the second half. In a game where the opposition shot the ball like total garbage, Grimes attacking an unset defense for layups helped keep Brooklyn at an arm's length.
The thing about sixth men, though, is the good feeds the bad just as the bad feeds the good. He'll remember his one-man show going forward and tap into the habits that make him a wild card next game.
The best role for the team is him spacing along the perimeter and attacking closeouts for shots at the rim. Nothing too complicated. Just shoot. Simple decisions. The role that seems to keep Grimes most engaged, though, is one in which he chews off more than he can handle on a case-by-case basis.
It was the last bucket of the game. The game was, for all intents and purposes, already over. But Bona cashed in on a corner three courtesy of Grimes, who the Nets basically iced on the perimeter so that his only option was to pass to Bona or drive through traffic.
It counts all the same. Good moment for Bona. If you get to the arena early enough on game day, you'll see him tirelessly working on his corner three. Hard work finally paid off.
I really only noticed this one instance, but it was a reminder of what McCain did often last year. He knows that he can relieve the pressure on his teammates by beating his defender to spots and, in turn, create open threes for himself.
The possession that really stood out involved McCain sprinting to the corner from the strong-side wing, making himself available to one of the bigs for a short pass to an open three.
That's super important to helping out these over-taxed bigs. Give them a quick release valve and get yourself a good look. But the mindfulness to execute when the defense's attention is elsewhere is also critical, and it will help when teams blitz to try and get the ball out of Maxey's hands. The open shot will be there, too. McCain just has to make himself available one pass away.
George looked quite good in his return from a sprained ankle, forcing his way to the rim for some contested scores inside and sticking a handful of jumpers on the left side of the floor. His body looks more athletic and more flexible than it did at any point last season. He clearly feels better.
That makes the way his minutes were dispersed even more perplexing. He reached his minute limit with 5:10 remaining in the third, stuck to the bench for the final 17:10 of the game. The Sixers won't regret much in a double-digit victory, but the Nets hung around for most of the night. Philadelphia could've used a little more shooting, a little more scoring and a little more off-the-dribble juice to keep the stream strong on offense in the closing minutes. It is incumbent upon Nurse to figure out how to deploy him without rendering George off-limits in the deciding minutes of the game.
The big fella could be seen in the background of McCain's postgame interview shooting jumpers in a sweatsuit. While it doesn't matter much to me one way or another in late November, I would like to see Embiid's perception in his home market be more reflective of how valuable he's been to this franchise over the last decade. He's done enough to be remembered very, very kindly here when his days in uniform are over.
So while him shooting some casual jumpers in a sweatsuit after the game is entirely trivial, that is more ammunition for his local detractors to use in their criticisms of him. The guy has missed almost three weeks with soreness in what is supposed to be his "healthier" knee. He's gone from 'out' to 'doubtful' to 'out' to 'questionable' to 'out', all while being a full participant at practice. He did not participate in the last practice, instead doing an individualized strength and conditioning workout. When there's limited clarity as to what's going on, the fans are going to be angry. The backdrop of it all is Maxey is playing 40 minutes per night to try to drag this team to victories. It feels like a similar story to last season even if the record is much better as of now.
Even if the Sixers are in a position where they can afford to be more conservative with Embiid over the first month of the season, there will still be people who criticize everything Embiid does. So when he doesn't play but is clearly visible shooting around in the background of McCain's interview, the optics aren't great. It's exactly what the local loud-mouths look for when they say that Embiid doesn't care about much beyond cashing checks.
