BOSTON — Joel Embiid will miss the 76ers’ next three games with a right oblique strain, the team announced Saturday evening.
Embiid will be out for Sunday’s nationally televised game at the Boston Celtics, then a home back-to-back against the San Antonio Spurs and Utah Jazz on Tuesday and Wednesday. The 2022-23 NBA MVP will be reevaluated after that, the Sixers said.
The update revealed by an MRI comes after Embiid did not participate in Saturday’s practice and reported increased soreness in his right side following Thursday’s home win over the Miami Heat, the team said. Embiid sustained the injury in the first half of that matchup but played through visible discomfort — and hit the game-clinching three-pointer in the game’s final minute.
He finished with 26 points, 11 rebounds, and four assists in 31 minutes, 12 seconds, but left the Sixers’ locker room before it opened to the media.
“I think that shows a lot,” Sixers rookie VJ Edgecombe said of Embiid playing through that injury Thursday. “The media make it seem like he doesn’t want to play basketball. Like, come on. He’s out there in pain, and he made a big shot at the end of the game. He barely could raise his right hand up. But that shows his character, too. He cares about winning. It’s Joel. It’s Joel Embiid, bro. That’s who we’re talking about right now. …
“I know they just try to paint this bad picture about him, but it’s not true.”
This latest ailment comes shortly after Embiid missed five games with a stress reaction in his right shin and to manage an injury in his right knee. He returned for Tuesday’s victory at the Indiana Pacers and scored 27 points in 26:15 and added six rebounds and five assists.
Before that absence, Embiid was enjoying a resurgence that put him in consideration to be an All-Star reserve. He averaged 30 points on 52.7% shooting, eight rebounds, and 4.5 assists in 20 games from Dec. 23 through Feb. 7.
Before this season, Embiid struggled to stay healthy following multiple surgeries on his left knee. He played in only 19 games last season and missed nearly two months of the 2023-24 season.
The Sixers entered Saturday with a 33-26 record and in sixth place in the Eastern Conference.
Rookie Johni Broome undergoes meniscus surgery
Sixers rookie big man Johni Broome underwent meniscus surgery on his right knee Saturday, the team announced. He will be reevaluated in four weeks.
Broome suffered the injury during the third quarter of the G League-affiliate Delaware Blue Coats’ loss to the Maine Celtics last Saturday. The procedure was a partial meniscectomy to repair a partial tear, the team said. Though the Sixers have not officially ruled Broome out for the rest of the season, coach Nick Nurse has acknowledged the recovery timeline will likely take him “pretty close” to its conclusion.
Broome, the Sixers’ second-round pick in last summer’s draft, had appeared in 11 NBA games and averaged 0.9 points and 1.5 rebounds in five minutes. He had gotten more experience in the G League, where he scored a team-high 27 points in 23 minutes Saturday before the injury. He had a 50-point, 17-rebound game for the Blue Coats last month.
A 6-foot-10, 235-pound frontcourt player, Broome was an All-American last season at Auburn and the winner of the Karl Malone Award given to men’s college basketball’s best power forward.
Aramark will not be the official food, beverage, and hospitality provider at the new South Philadelphia arena where the 76ers, Flyers, and the city’s new WNBA team are expected to play.
Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Sixers, and Comcast Spectacor, which owns the Flyers and Xfinity Mobile Arena, announced that Levy Restaurants will take over food and beverage duties in the new arena, which is slated to open by 2030.
“Very few cities are as devoted to their teams as Philadelphia, the loyalty and passion are part of the DNA that make the community so special. It’s both an honor and an invigorating opportunity to help amplify the best of Philadelphia,” Levy CEO Andy Lansing said in a statement.
Smoked chicken cheesesteak is on the 2025-26 menu at the Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Aramark has overseen hospitality at the Sixers’ and Flyers’ arena since it opened in 1996. Lincoln Financial Field and Citizens Bank Park hospitality services are still operated by the Philadelphia-based food services provider.
A spokesperson for the arena said that the decision to go with a new provider was not based on Aramark’s performance, but was the result of a standard pitch process.
“We have a great relationship with our friends at Aramark,” Comcast Spectacor chairman and CEO Dan Hilferty told SportsBusinessJournal. “We have, on both sides, committed that while Xfinity Mobile Arena is still in operation, we’re going to deliver the best possible product.”
Aramark will continue its tenure at Xfinity Mobile Arena until the new arena opens. The new arena was announced last year after plans to build a Center City arena for the Sixers were abandoned in favor of a new building at the South Philly sports complex.
Xfinity Mobile Arena used to be known as the Wells Fargo Arena, from 2010 into August 2025.
“Our team is fully committed to delivering memorable game day experiences, and we are grateful for the many decades spent fueling the passion and energy of the fans,” an Aramark spokesperson said in a statement.
The hometown food service provider has come under fire in recent years over labor disputes with the thousands of people who work in the stadiums. Before Unite Here Local 274 won its latest contract, fewer than 100 workers represented by the union had year-round healthcare. The contract, signed last March, increased wages and brought hundreds of workers onto the union healthcare plan.
Levy’s portfolio includes nearly half the NBA/NHL shared arenas, such as Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena, according to a Sixers spokesperson. Levy, which has headquarters in Chicago, also provides services for such large events as the Kentucky Derby and the Grammys.
Trendon Watford inadvertently messed with Tyrese Maxey’s psyche during Tuesday’s win at the Indiana Pacers. After the All-Star guard sank his first two three-point attempts, Watford informed Maxey that he only needed four more to break the 76ers’ franchise record for career makes.
“I had no idea I was that close,” Maxey said. “… I missed every three after that [in that game].”
Maxey wasted little time achieving the milestone during Thursday’s 124-117 victory over the Miami Heat. He ripped off two in 12 seconds, thanks to a leaping interception between shots. He pulled up again in transition from the left wing at the 4-minute, 29-second mark, tying the record. Then, poetically, Watford pump-faked, drove, and dished to an open Maxey for the record-breaking splash that the longtime close friends will remember “forever,” Maxey said. He hit one more — on one of his quintessential stepbacks — before the first-quarter buzzer for good measure.
That first-quarter flurry pushed Maxey past Allen Iverson’s 885 career three-pointers, and he ended the night with 887 after going 5-of-12 from beyond the arc. During his five-plus NBA seasons, Maxey entered Thursday connecting on 38% of those long-range attempts. That it took Maxey only 375 games to amass that many makes — Iverson’s total occurred in 722 — partially is a product of the modern NBA, which thrives on creating and making three-pointers.
It also is a testament to Maxey turning a perceived weakness into a massive weapon in his arsenal as one of the NBA’s most dangerous scorers. He entered Friday ranked fourth in the NBA at 29.1 points per game.
“That’s a blessing, honestly,” Maxey said postgame of the record. “I’m just happy, man. … Thank God for the opportunity. I thank God for the Sixers organization for drafting me, trusting me, believing in me.”
Today, it seems outrageous that three-point shooting was the biggest critique of Maxey’s game entering the 2020 draft after he made only 29.2% of his attempts during his one college season at Kentucky. He remembers being constantly questioned about it during interviews with NBA decision-makers. Maxey’s father, Tyrone, recently recalled to The Inquirer a pre-draft workout in which Tyrese made 33 three-pointers in a row, and that team “still passed on him.”
The Sixers front office, however, believed in Maxey’s perimeter shooting mechanics and “secondary indicators” of NBA potential, president of basketball operations Daryl Morey told The Inquirer in 2021.
Once the Sixers drafted Maxey 21st overall, former coach Doc Rivers was flabbergasted that Maxey consistently made threes inside the practice facility but only 30.1% of his in-game attempts as a rookie. Former teammate Tobias Harris encouraged Maxey to keep shooting. So did superstar Joel Embiid, eventually declaring that Maxey should attempt 10 per game.
“I knew I could shoot the ball well,” Maxey recalled earlier this month.
His efficiency rose above 40% for consecutive seasons, from 2021 to 2023, even as that volume increased. That percentage temporarily dipped to 33.7% during the Sixers’ disastrous 2024-25 season, when Maxey often struggled as the top offensive option for an injury-plagued team, and then suffered a finger sprain that severely hampered his shooting.
This season, Maxey is back to making 37.6% of his 8.9 attempts per game, and was selected to participate in the three-point contest at All-Star Saturday before starting Sunday’s main event.
And coach Nick Nurse continues to push Maxey to fire even more three-pointers, and from farther away from the basket. The next layer to Maxey’s three-point assortment, Nurse said, is when he slams on the brakes in transition and launches off the dribble. Those attempts, Nurse said, are “so difficult to guard” and “[require] maybe the least amount of effort.”
“If you can get teams to have to pick you up that high,” Nurse said, “that’s just immediately going to help your offense and create space for everybody.”
Maxey said he “definitely” agrees with Nurse’s assessment, and coyly added that there are “a lot of things I want to try to work on” regarding his three-point shooting.
Yet to already pass the franchise legend Iverson “in anything” is an honor, Maxey said. He waved to the crowd when a video tribute between the first and second quarters formally connected the Hall of Famer to the franchise’s current star. And it was fitting that Maxey had the game-clinching assist on an Embiid three-pointer with 29.2 seconds remaining.
Then, Maxey brought the game ball to his postgame news conference. His mother, Denyse, keeps most of the memorabilia commemorating such accomplishments at their family home near Dallas.
Maxey hopes Mom will let him hang on to this memento, which signifies how he turned a perceived weakness into a record-breaking offensive weapon.
“He’s going to have some time to increase it,” Nurse said of the milestone. “Will be a tough one to beat by the time he’s done.”
Tyrese Maxey broke Allen Iverson’s 76ers franchise record for 3-pointers, finishing with five 3s and a team-high 28 points Thursday night in the Sixers’ 124-117 victory over the Miami Heat.
Maxey also had 11 assists and helped steady the Sixers after they blew a 16-point halftime lead. Joel Embiid had 26 points and 11 rebounds, and Kelly Oubre scored 21 points for the Sixers, who have now won three straight after dropping their previous four.
Bam Adebayo had 29 points and 14 rebounds, and Tyler Herro scored 25 points for the Heat, who have lost two straight.
Maxey entered the game with 882 made three-pointers, three behind Iverson, and broke the record with 1 minute, 38 seconds left in the first quarter. He made all of his five three-point attempts — a career high for a period — and scored 20 points in the first quarter alone. He finished 5 of 12 beyond the arc.
The 25-year-old Maxey now has 887 three-pointers midway through his sixth season; Iverson played his first 10 seasons and parts of two more for the Sixers to accomplish his feat.
Miami took its first lead of the game on a 3 by Herro with 2:44 left, but the Heat didn’t score again. Maxey hit two free throws and then found Kelly Oubre for a 3 to put the Sixers back ahead 121-117. Embiid extended the lead on a 3 with 29.2 seconds remaining.
The Sixers led 73-57 at halftime. Miami rallied to tie it late in the third quarter, and the margin was within single digits the rest of the way.
Next up: the Sixers are on a road trip to take on rivals Boston on Sunday night (7 p.m., NBCSP).
Tyrese Maxey became the 76ers’ all-time leader in made three-pointers in the first quarter of Thursday’s home game against the Miami Heat.
Maxey needed four makes entering the game to pass Allen Iverson, who made 885 three-pointers in his Sixers career. Maxey needed less than six seasons to eclipse that career mark.
Maxey buried two deep shots in a matter of seconds early in the game, then hit a pull-up shot from the left wing with about four minutes remaining in the opening quarter. Then he got a pass from Trendon Watford — one of his close friends — for the record-breaking splash.
Maxey, a two-time All-Star, entered Thursday making 38% of his 6.2 three-point attempts per game in his five-plus NBA seasons. It has evolved into a massive weapon in his offensive arsenal, which has fueled the 29.1 points he has averaged this season entering Thursday.
INDIANAPOLIS — As soon as the 76ers boarded their flight following a brutal loss at the New Orleans Pelicans, the conversation turned serious.
“What do we want to do? What team do we want to be?” All-Star point guard Tyrese Maxey recalled of the message. “… This is a defining moment in our season. It’s not make-or-break, but it’s time to go.”
What began as a woeful three-game road trip quickly flipped into a successful one. The Sixers snapped a four-game skid by pulling off an impressive victory at the Minnesota Timberwolves on the second night of a back-to-back, then took care of business against the shorthanded and tanking Indiana Pacers. Joel Embiid returned from what he called a stress reaction in his right leg against Indiana, totaling 27 points on 11-of-17 shooting, six rebounds, and five assists in an outing he said felt “OK.”
Yet the most encouraging development for the Sixers is that Maxey is officially humming again, after a rough shooting start out of the All-Star break. He totaled 39 points and eight assists against Minnesota, attacking immediately with his speed instead of overanalyzing schemes, coach Nick Nurse said. Maxey followed that by nearly amassing a 32-point triple-double (nine rebounds, eight assists) in three quarters of work, which was bolstered by Embiid’s presence.
“Amazing mental adjustment for him,” Nurse added of Maxey following that victory in Minneapolis. “To come in and have some tough games, and then just kind of know we really need him to have a great one, and he just does it.
“He plays like that, and then all of a sudden everybody else gets lifted, too. And that’s what great players are supposed to do.”
Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey carried his team to an important victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Fueling that surge after the New Orleans disaster, Maxey said, were “encouraging words” he received from family back home, who told him there “ain’t no chance you’re going to let your team lose five in a row.” Teammate and close friend Trendon Watford also provided some tough love on that plane ride, saying, “Go help your team win a game, and do whatever it takes.”
The Sixers return home for one game against the Miami Heat while hanging on to the sixth spot in the Eastern Conference standings entering Wednesday (32-26). After that is a marquee showdown at the Boston Celtics, who sit second in the East and are arguably the NBA’s biggest surprise this season.
Until then, here are some snapshots from the road trip …
Tyrese and Ant Man
Dive into the video archives belonging to the mother of Maxey’s best friend, Chris Harris, and one would find footage of them playing against Edwards as fifth-graders.
“Short, chubby, strong,” Maxey said of Edwards back then. “And now, he’s that.”
Since then, Maxey and Edwards have coincidentally remained alongside each other during their journeys into NBA stardom.
They hung out “every single day” at the McDonald’s All American Game as high schoolers. They both played their one college basketball season in the SEC — Maxey at Kentucky, and Edwards at Georgia. They were selections in a strange 2020 draft, with Edwards going first overall and Maxey slipping to 21st. And earlier this month, their young Team Stars won the All-Star tournament. Edwards was the MVP of the event, while Maxey was prominently featured as the top American fan vote-getter.
“[He’s] a guy that I really appreciate talking to,” Maxey said of Edwards. “I appreciate his craft. I appreciate his story. We just kind of clicked.”
So when Maxey and Edwards faced off Sunday, it was all competitive love. Maxey said that when Edwards scored on him early and talked trash, “it kind of woke me up a little bit.” Then Maxey returned the favor by jamming the ball on Edwards — a player known for his thunderous dunks — and gave Edwards the mean mug.
“I didn’t know that he was going downhill,” Edwards told reporters after the game. “I just end up turning my head and I’m thinking he’s going to lay it up, and he punched it. It was a quick little dunk, too. I couldn’t even get a chance to block it.
“That’s why we play the game. I’m not mad at that.”
VJ Edgecombe has been better from three-point range than expected when the Sixers drafted him.
‘Three-J’ Edgecombe
VJ Edgecombe simply did not care — about his three-point shot, that is. If he got an open look against the Timberwolves, he let it fly.
“Thank God I wasn’t missing,” he said after the game.
The result was a career-high six makes on seven attempts, as part of a 24-point night for the Sixers’ standout rookie guard. He followed that up with a 23-point effort at Indiana, including a 2-of-4 mark from long range. Edgecombe entered Thursday shooting 36.4% on 5.7 three-point attempts per game, and has a knack for knocking down clutch deep shots (12-of-22 when a game is within five points with five minutes or less remaining).
“That’s a really great attitude to have,” Nurse said of Edgecombe’s “doesn’t care” approach. “That’s what he should do. Take rhythm shots. Take bailout ones when we need him at the end of the shot clock.”
That combination of confidence and results continues to make Edgecombe’s shooting — the biggest knock against his game before being drafted third overall — a pleasant surprise.
He shot 34% on 4.6 attempts during his one season at Baylor, although coach Scott Drew said that mark improved with a midseason form adjustment. Nurse called Edgecombe’s mechanics “pretty good” during the predraft process. And Edgecombe ignored such critics.
“The people saying I couldn’t shoot,” Edgecombe told The Inquirer from the locker room in Minneapolis, “are the people that are not playing basketball.”
Edgecombe credits the “countless reps” put in with assistant coach Rico Hines, from the summer until now. They achieved a higher arc on his shot. Now, he is working on making his release quicker and getting more comfortable launching off the dribble.
If minor details — such as the ball pickup before shooting — do not feel right, Edgecombe will repeat the repetition. They continue to drill “until I like the make, for real.”
When does that occur?
“All net,” he said. “Like a swish.”
The Sixers outscored the Pacers by 27 points in the 15 minutes Adem Bona spent on the floor.
Bona’s burst
Plus-minus is considered to be a flawed or incomplete stat. But reserve center Adem Bona was a plus-27 in less than 15 minutes against the Pacers, an insane metric that matched the eye test that identified the performance as one of his best of the season.
Bona made an across-the-box-score impact, with six points on 3-of-3 shooting, five rebounds, three assists, two steals, and one block. He was in the middle — literally and figuratively — of the Sixers’ second-quarter run to flip an eight-point deficit into a double-digit advantage, and the second-half surge to extend the lead to as many as 28 points.
“I just do what I do,” he said. “… Inject energy to the team, communicate, and just anchor the defense.
“I realized [my plus-minus] after the game. But that’s my goal whenever I step on the floor, to impact the team positively.”
The Timberwolves entered Sunday’s game undersized, with Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid both out. And when fill-in starter Joan Beringer got into foul trouble, Minnesota went small and then “super small,” as Nurse described.
The Sixers countered at the end of the first half with a three-guard lineup, plus the 6-foot-9 Dominick Barlow at center. Barlow also played that position for a stretch in New Orleans the previous night.
Sixers forward Dominick Barlow has taken shifts at center when teams go “super small.”
Barlow said Saturday that he still has not practiced at that spot much throughout this season, while elevating himself to a starting forward spot and having his two-way contract converted to a standard deal earlier this month. But Nurse sees potential for Barlow to be an offensive “hub” in the middle, because of his ability to handle the ball, roll, and back cut in the middle of the floor.
“I kind of just figured it out,” Barlow said, “and try to have that approach whatever position I’m playing.”
An off-day routine
The friendship between Nurse and Minnesota coach Chris Finch, who both cut their teeth in the British Basketball League and the NBA D-League (now G League), remains a popular topic whenever their teams match up. When asked Sunday if he spends more time watching Timberwolves games, Nurse acknowledged Finch’s team “probably gets double time, just to see what’s going on.”
So what is Nurse’s game-watching routine on nights the Sixers do not play?
He generally focuses on whichever teams the Sixers will face in the near future. He will keep track of other scores on an iPad. And when he notices another game is close in the final three minutes, he will flip over to catch the end.
As veteran guard Kyle Lowry grabbed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich from the visitors’ locker room before Tuesday’s game in Indiana, teammate Cameron Payne asked for one, too. Lowry then complimented the bread, calling it perhaps the best he has had this season.
That meal so often associated with childhood is wildly popular across professional sports, either in traditional form or as a Smucker’s Uncrustable. So popular that ESPN published a 2017 feature on PB&J, calling the sandwich “the NBA’s secret addiction.”
But a question must accompany this culinary choice: Grape or strawberry jelly?
Payne and Barlow, who was sitting nearby during the exchange, chose grape. Lowry’s preference is strawberry.
INDIANAPOLIS — While away during the All-Star break, Joel Embiid began to feel a sensation all the way down his right leg that he compared to an electric shock.
“It was really painful to walk,” Embiid recalled at his locker late Tuesday.
Though officially identified as shin soreness on recent 76ers injury reports, Embiid called it a stress reaction. It became the latest test in Embiid’s more cautious approach to navigating his health this season, as he missed five consecutive games with that ailment along with right knee injury management.
His return to the floor Tuesday was productive and efficient. He totaled 27 points on 11-of-17 shooting plus six rebounds and five assists in 26 minutes of the Sixers’ 135-114 blowout of the shorthanded and tanking Indiana Pacers.
“I feel good enough to go out there,” Embiid said, “and play to the point where I think I have a little bit of confidence that I’m going to be fine and hope for the best.”
The Sixers (32-26) lost their first four games during this Embiid absence before an impressive win at the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday on the second night of a back-to-back. Questions about those struggles without the former NBA Most Valuable Player prompted a candid response from rookie guard VJ Edgecombe, who said Thursday, “We miss Joel. It’s that simple. He’s a walking 30 points.” Starting wing Paul George also remains out until late March while serving a 25-game suspension for violating the NBA’s anti-drug policy.
On Sunday, Embiid progressed to four-on-four on-court work. He was upgraded to questionable on Monday evening’s injury report, then participated in most of Tuesday morning’s shootaround, coach Nick Nurse said. Thirty minutes before tipoff, the team listed him in the starting lineup.
The initial minutes were clunky for Embiid and his team, which did not execute Nurse’s desired pace and movement around the big man on offense and could not get a stop on the defensive end.
Joel Embiid had 27 points, six rebounds, and five assists in Tuesday’s win over the Indiana Pacers.
Embiid’s rhythm returned in the second quarter. He scored at all three levels, including a driving finish, multiple mid-range jumpers, and a three-pointer. He was on the receiving end of a slick no-look pass from Tyrese Maxey, which he dunked.
By halftime, Embiid had 20 points.
“Kind of wanted the ball more than I did the first time around,” Embiid said of that second-quarter stint. “Just got shots and knocked it down.”
Maxey said he felt Embiid’s presence on both ends, helping the point guard flirt with a 32-point triple-double (nine rebounds, eight assists) in 34 minutes, while four other teammates finished in double figures. Embiid appeared to be moving around the court well, including while protecting the rim as an interior defender. He received fourth-quarter minutes even with the Sixers possessing a massive lead, an effort to reestablish his conditioning. And though locking back into that two-man game with Maxey was mostly seamless, the point guard added that there were still moments when Embiid wanted him to cut more.
“He just takes so much pressure off us offensively,” said Maxey, noting that opponents can no longer send multiple defenders his way while sharing the court with the big man. “They’ve got to pay attention to him. … And then when I’m second pass right there next to him, it’s hard to [double team], too, so there’s a lot of space out there on the court.”
This Embiid return comes after a dominant stretch, when he averaged 30 points on 52.7% shooting along with eight rebounds and 4.5 assists in 20 games from Dec. 23 to Feb. 7. During that vintage run, Embiid declared this comeback season was already a success, assuming many outsiders figured he would never return to that level of productivity (and availability) after multiple left knee surgeries derailed his 2024-25 season and caused a nearly two-month absence the previous year.
Following Tuesday’s victory, Embiid acknowledged he previously was “not familiar” with the treatment or recovery process for stress reactions. He anticipates the path forward — closely monitoring the leg, and managing his workload — will be similar to how he and the medical staff handled his knee at the beginning of this season. Embiid also reiterated that he will trust in God, and that his body will respond how it is supposed to.
Count Maxey as somebody who appreciates Embiid’s newfound careful approach. Maxey believes it gives the Sixers “a chance to be healthy when it really, really matters” in the playoffs, when Embiid has often labored through games or suffered new injuries. And it has forced the Sixers to try to figure out how to play without him, mostly with a fast-paced formula that Embiid emphasized in conversations with Nurse during this most recent absence.
The Sixers snapped out of their skid Sunday night, while Embiid was still sidelined.
And once Embiid returned to game action against the Pacers?
“When he comes back and he looks like that,” Maxey said of Embiid’s performance Tuesday, “I think we’ve got a pretty good chance.”
INDIANAPOLIS — Joel Embiid had 27 points in his return to the lineup after missing five games with right shin soreness and right knee injury management, Tyrese Maxey scored 32 points, and the 76ers beat the Indiana Pacers 135-114 on Tuesday night.
Embiid scored 20 points in the first half, sinking 11 of 17 shots in 26 minutes. VJ Edgecombe chipped in with 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting for the 76ers, who shot 58%.
Andrew Nembhard and Micah Potter each scored 23 for the Pacers. Quenton Jackson had 15 points and rookie Kam Jones added a career-high 13 points.
Pacers leading scorer Pascal Siakam was out with a left wrist sprain. The Pacers also were without Aaron Nesmith, who missed his third consecutive game with right ankle sprain.
Indiana shot 42% from the field and committed 16 turnovers. The Sixers held a 44-41 rebounding edge with Maxey leading the way with nine rebounds. Jarace Walker had 10 rebounds for the Pacers.
The 76ers showed their dominance inside with a 82-52 edge in points in the paint.
Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey (center) had a game-high 32 points against Indiana.
The Pacers led 38-30 after the first quarter, but the 76ers answered with a 17-0 spurt to open the second quarter and take a 47-38 lead. Philadelphia shot 64% to take a 75-65 lead at halftime.
Maxey scored 13 points in the third quarter as the 76ers took complete control, expanding the lead to 106-85 after three quarters.
The Sixers led by 28 points in the fourth quarter before emptying the bench. They will return to Xfinity Mobile Arena next to face the Miami Heat on Thursday (7 p.m., NBCSP).
INDIANAPOLIS — Joel Embiid will return for the 76ers’ Tuesday game at the Indiana Pacers, the team said.
Embiid had missed the Sixers’ previous five games with shin soreness and to manage an injury in his right knee. The shin soreness surfaced during the mid-February All-Star break while participating in a management program for his right knee injury, which first emerged earlier in the season.
Embiid had progressed to 4-on-4 on-court work on Sunday and participated in most of Tuesday’s shootaround, coach Nick Nurse said during his pregame news conference.
Before this absence, Embiid was enjoying a dominant resurgence that put him in consideration to be an All-Star reserve. The former NBA Most Valuable Player had averaged 30 points on 52.7% shooting, 8.0 rebounds, and 4.5 assists in his last 20 games played from Dec. 23 through Feb. 7.
Prior to this season, Embiid struggled to stay healthy following multiple surgeries on his left knee. He played in only 19 games last season, and missed nearly two months of the 2023-24 season.
Following Tuesday’s game, the Sixers next host the Miami Heat on Thursday before a marquee road matchup at the Boston Celtics on Sunday night.
MINNEAPOLIS — While sitting next to Quentin Grimes on the bench during the 76ers’ Feb. 7 win at the Phoenix Suns, Tyrese Maxey delivered this message:
“Bro, go out there and just do you,” Maxey told Grimes. “Go hoop.”
Grimes’ off-the-bench spark reappeared Sunday night in the Sixers’ impressive 135-108 bounce-back win against the Timberwolves at the Target Center. The 25-year-old guard totaled 19 points and seven assists, complementing terrific offensive nights from backcourt mates Maxey (39 points and eight assists) and VJ Edgecombe (24 points and seven rebounds).
Such production provides a crucial lift in the games the Sixers (31-26) play without the injured Joel Embiid and/or suspended Paul George. Yet Grimes’ goal for the rest of the season is to consistently stay in “attack mode,” no matter who is on the floor with him. It would be a stretch-run boon for the Sixers’ second unit, which enters Monday ranked 28th in the NBA in bench scoring (30.6 points per game).
“If I kind of just stick to my game, stick to who I am,” Grimes said Sunday at his locker, “ … good things happen.”
Grimes went 5-of-8 from three-point range, including makes on his first attempt from the top of the key and on a fourth-quarter launch that gave the Sixers a 102-82 advantage and prompted a Timberwolves timeout. Grimes also was a successful playmaker, with dump-off passes to center Adem Bona for inside finishes and a highlight alley-oop lob to Edgecombe in transition.
Coach Nick Nurse also appreciates Grimes’ ability to play long stretches, shifting to different positions while the coach “subbed around him.” For example, Grimes closed the first half as part of a small-ball lineup with three guards and Dominick Barlow at center.
“It looks like he’s settling back into the role we had him in earlier,” Nurse said after the game.
Grimes had flashed that such a resurgence could be percolating in the Sixers’ first two games coming out of the All-Star break. In Thursday’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks, he scored 10 of his 14 points in the first half. He totaled another nine in the first quarter Saturday in a brutal defeat at the New Orleans Pelicans, but he could not carry it through the game amid the Sixers’ horrendous second-half shooting.
That aligned with Grimes’ inconsistent results throughout the bulk of his first full season in Philly, following a messy, prolonged restricted free agency that resulted in him signing his one-year qualifying offer after the start of training camp.
Early on, Grimes looked like an NBA Sixth Man of the Year contender as part of a loaded group of young and athletic guards. But he also has dipped into multiple shooting slumps — or low-attempt outings — while also mixing in the occasional reckless defensive close-out that gets whistled as a foul. He is averaging 12.8 points on 44.3% shooting, along with 3.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 0.9 steals in 51 games.
The fifth-year guard certainly was never going to hold the same role this season as when he was initially acquired at the 2025 trade deadline, when he became the Sixers’ top offensive option and lead ballhandler while Maxey, Embiid, and George were all shut down with injuries. Grimes acknowledges it has been challenging at times to carve out his opportunities whenever those three standouts are all available — and because Edgecombe has surpassed him on the depth chart by becoming an immediate starter as a rookie.
Still, Nurse said last week that he still wants to deliberately target a number of shots for Grimes to fire each game, instead of those attempts regularly emerging in the Sixers’ “random” offense.
Tyrese Maxey, defended by the Timberwolves’ Donte DiVincenzo, had 39 points and eight assists in the Sixers’ win over Minnesota on Sunday.
Maxey wants six or seven three-pointers out of Grimes, believing he too often pump-fakes and drives when open on the perimeter. When Grimes studies film with player development coach TJ DiLeo in the locker room about an hour before each game, a portion of their focus is on the gaps in the defense that Grimes can exploit to sharply vault up for a shot. Nurse added that Grimes is quite good at creating his own space from a defender, and launching over an outstretched arm trying to contest.
“He can get them off anytime he wants,” Nurse said of Grimes. “ … [We are working on] getting him situations where, ‘Hey, we’re going to get you the ball, and we need you to shake your guy down and shoot the ball here.’
Grimes also got a jolt of rejuvenation from the All-Star break, which he spent in Cabo San Lucas getting a tan, eating delicious meals, and spending time with his family.
The refresh helped him recommit to that on-court attack mode in the Sixers’ first two games out of the break. But Sunday was the full spark that the Sixers will need from Grimes while Embiid and George remain sidelined and when his team returns to full strength.
“I’ve got to just figure out my spots,” Grimes said. “ … When guys come back, there can’t be no drop-off.”
