Oct 28, 2025; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Adem Bona (30) prepares to dunk the ball as Washington Wizards center Alex Sarr (20) looks on in the first half at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
You couldn't help but chuckle at the juxtaposition of the television commercial following the game break.
It's a black-and-white compilation of Sixers practice clips narrated by Tyrese Maxey.
"We need a standard," Maxey says. "Like, this is who we are every single day."
The 3-0 Sixers have not proven anything. You can't do that in October. But they're turning heads.
In previous years, a loss on the second night of a back-to-back would've been excused as a "scheduled loss". And perhaps that's a valid excuse. The quantity of back-to-backs is a talking point every NBA season.
But you don't build character by shrugging at losses on the second night of a back-to-back. Not this early in the season.
And yet there the Sixers were, looking almost dead on Tuesday. There was something of an emotional high from beating the vaunted Orlando Magic without Joel Embiid on Monday.
A letdown game wouldn't have been unexpected. At times, it looked as if this game was headed squarely in that direction.
By halftime, the Sixers had five more made free throws than the Wizards did. They had one more made three than their Washington hosts. But the Wizards hd a strong advantage on made twos.
It was the best summary of how the game was going.
The Sixers were hanging around, all because of offense.
Embiid is looking more and more like himself on offense with each passing game. He's not demanding respect on defense at all right now. That end of the floor has a long way to go.
No matter who the Sixers put in to man the middle, they couldn't get stops. They over-ran shooters. They couldn't contain the ball on the perimeter. Every contest at the rim was late. The Sixers were getting out-shot from two and almost all of them were at the rim. An analytics nightmare.
By the middle of the third quarter, you might've started to accept that a loss was inevitable. Maybe they earned the right to have a bad night. A loss shouldn't undo the good will they've built through a 3-0 start.
The game was never quite out of reach, but it didn't feel like they had the magic in them on this night.
The Sixers gave up 110 points through three quarters. Their defense is lagging behind their offense, and that's putting it nicely.
So what is the standard that Maxey spoke of?
To be clear, the Sixers are fun right now. There is juice to their offense. But they have yet to lock in on defense for a full game.
Perhaps the standard is a perpetually-evolving concept. Maybe the defense will get better as Embiid plays more, everyone gets more comfortable together and Philadelphia's forward depth returns.
But for now, the standard is to play through the final buzzer. There is no checking out early. They're set on making you feel like you watched a great effort every night.
The thing that makes this team dangerous right now is that they're the only ones who refuse to say 'die'.
A 16-point deficit early in the fourth quarter on Tuesday wasn't enough to convince them that they were out of it.
By the final buzzer, they had allowed Washington to score just 24 points through the fourth quarter and overtime.
Better late than never on the defensive end.
The comeback would require some offensive juice from Quentin Grimes, who only played about 26 minutes on Monday before fouling out.
Khris Middleton and CJ McCollum are well beyond their best years, but they can still deploy their breadth of NBA knowledge for more than 30 minutes per game.
Even with Washington's veteran guidance, the younger Sixers were comfortable with the position they were in.
They locked all windows and doors when it mattered most, causing the Wizards to descend into chaos on the perimeter and difficulty at the rim.
It was a team effort to keep the game within striking distance, and then Maxey found a reserve of fuel to push the victory over the finish line.
But first, Adem Bona had to set a hard, old fashioned flare screen to get Grimes open on the wing. Maxey lobbed the ball over Bona's head and perfectly into Grimes' shooting pocket. Tied ballgame with less than a minute to play.
Even with Middleton missing the game-winner at the buzzer in regulation, the Wizards didn't go down easily. They jumped out to a five-point lead early in the extra session. And it finally looked as though maybe, just maybe, the Sixers had run out of battery. A valiant effort to punch back, but ultimately just short of the finish line.
Not on Maxey's watch.
He toed the baseline for a seemingly impossible reverse layup to cut the deficit to three points. He navigated a high pick from Bona and blew by an off-balanced Alex Sarr to cut the deficit to one with 56 seconds to play.
Were the Sixers one stop away from actually pulling this off?
Despite his years of explosive guard play, even McCollum would probably like the ensuing possession back. He settled for an awkward leaning three that popped off the back rim and into Grimes' arms.
The Sixers controlled their destiny.
But even Maxey, on the heater of his life to start this season, isn't perfect. His floater rimmed short.
However, the Sixers didn't claw back into this one by relying upon one guy. They wouldn't finish it off by riding Maxey's coat-tails, either.
Bona, whose hands make him unreliable on offense, sprung to the rim to follow Maxey's floater. The Sixers were one stop away from firmly staking their claim to a 4-0 start.
Kyshawn George had an angle to the basket out of a sideline out-of-bounds situation, getting VJ Edgecombe on his inside hip to allow the dribble penetration. But once again, Bona was there.
It wasn't recorded as a block, but he met George at the rim, causing the short floater to land short. The Sixers had control.
Championships aren't won in October. But you can build belief, both internally and externally.
The Sixers believe in what they're doing.
Do you?
