ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Once again, the Eagles defense dragged the offense to the finish line.
The Eagles squeaked out a 13-12 victory over the Buffalo Bills on a cold, rainy evening at Highmark Stadium thanks to Vic Fangio’s dominant unit. Despite taking a 13-0 lead in the first half, the Eagles punted on all five of their possessions in the second, routinely putting their defense in difficult situations.
The Bills notched touchdowns on two straight drives — both on Josh Allen Tush Pushes — late in the fourth quarter. Bills head coach Sean McDermott opted to go for two to win it, but Allen’s pass intended for Khalil Shakir sailed too far in front of the receiver. Dallas Goedert recovered the ensuing onside kick with four seconds remaining to seal the win.
Here’s our instant analysis from the Eagles’ third straight victory:
Allen’s costly turnover
The Bills had early momentum on their second possession, but squandered it to set the tone for much of the first three quarters.
They were just outside the red zone, thanks to Allen’s 50-yard completion to wide receiver Brandin Cooks. On second-and-3 from the Eagles’ 23-yard line, Allen faked a handoff to running back James Cook, then rolled out to his right. He had Jalen Carter in his face, forcing Allen to scramble away.
As Allen fled Carter, he attempted to tuck the football, but Jaelan Phillips knocked it out of his grasp. The ball bounced past midfield, where Jihaad Campbell fell on it, beating Bills right guard O’Cyrus Torrence to the ball.
Eagles linebacker Jihaad Campbell recovers a fumble by Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen in the first quarter Saturday at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y.
“We knew Josh Allen could continue to extend plays,” Nick Sirianni said postgame. “And the way we pursued to the ball showed how good of shape [the defense is] in. It showed how relentless they are.
“I tell them, I always say, ‘Hey, talented teams that play with great attention to detail — which we have some things to clean up — that play together and play with relentless effort, those teams are hard to beat.’”
The Eagles made Allen pay for his mistake. On the second play of the drive, Jalen Hurts completed a 27-yard deep ball to A.J. Brown with Bills safety Cole Bishop and cornerback Christian Benford trailing in his wake to bring the Eagles to the Bills’ 14.
Hurts eventually went back to his favorite red-zone target — Goedert. The 30-year-old tight end hauled in a pass in the end zone from Hurts out of an under-center play action look in 14 personnel (four tight ends, including depth tackle Matt Pryor).
The Eagles went up, 7-0, on the heels of Allen’s blunder.
Defense does its best
Fangio’s unit ensured that Allen was under duress for the majority of the game.
The pass rush gave him fits. Allen was sacked five times — twice by Jalyx Hunt and once each by Phillips, Moro Ojomo, and Carter.
Carter, the 24-year-old defensive tackle, made his return to action after a three-week layoff because of a pair of shoulder injuries. He dominated the Bills’ offensive line, notching his sack when he obliterated Torrence on his way to Allen in the second quarter. Carter also had a critical extra point block after Buffalo scored its first touchdown of the game in the fourth quarter.
Jalen Carter and Saquon Barkley celebrate after the Eagles defense stopped the Buffalo Bills on a two-point conversion attempt late in the fourth quarter.
The Eagles were the more physical team. On the play following Carter’s sack, Reed Blankenship crashed down on a short pass to Shakir over the middle and stuffed him, forcing the Bills to go three-and-out.
Late in the third quarter, the Eagles defense bent but didn’t break. Quinyon Mitchell had a shaky drive, getting flagged for pass interference and then conceding a 32-yard catch at the hands of wide receiver Terrell Shavers to the Eagles’ 7-yard line.
The Eagles didn’t blink and mustered a goal-line stand. On third-and-goal from the 2, Marcus Epps stuffed Cook for a loss of a yard. Allen attempted to scramble on the ensuing fourth down, but Zack Baun tackled him short of the goal line to force a turnover on downs.
Allen wasn’t finished making costly plays. On the Bills’ next possession, on third-and-8 from the Eagles’ 27, Hunt sacked Allen for a loss of 19 yards. The 24-year-old outside linebacker’s play pushed the Bills out of field-goal range and forced them to punt.
The Bills had opportunity after opportunity to mount their comeback. Allen tried to pull it off with his arm, going 23-for-35 for 262 yards, his fifth-best performance in terms of passing yards this season. Still, the Eagles defense prevented Buffalo from scoring on four of their six drives in the second half, leading to the Bills’ second home loss of the season.
“We’re just resilient,” Hunt said. “We trust each other, no matter what, the ups and downs. Nobody gets to bickering on the sideline. We know it’s a close game. We’re built for close games. So we just keep playing football.”
Offense sits back
After punting on their first two possessions of the game, the Eagles offense got going. They scored points on all three of their possessions following Allen’s fumble — the Goedert touchdown and two Jake Elliott field goals (for 47 and 28 yards).
The Eagles were balanced in the first half on offense. The run game averaged 4.0 yards per carry, with Saquon Barkley averaging 4.6. Hurts was fairly efficient in the passing game, going 13-for-20 for 110 yards and the touchdown throw to Goedert. Brown eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards on the season with his five receptions for 68 yards in the first half.
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts tries to push through Bills defenders in the third quarter.
The second half was a different story. The Eagles punted on all five possessions, collecting just 17 yards of offense in that span. The Eagles went three-and-out on four of those drives.
The Bills eventually capitalized on the strong field position afforded them by the struggling Eagles offense. After the Eagles went three-and-out for a fourth time, ending their drive at their own 24, the Bills started the following possession from their own 46. They marched down the field, capping it off with a Allen Tush Push for a touchdown to make it 13-6, Eagles.
Negative plays wrecked the Eagles. Barkley had eight carries for 17 yards in those five possessions, averaging 2.1 yards per play. Hurts did not complete a pass on seven drop backs in the second half. After the game, Hurts acknowledged the disparity in the level of execution between halves.
“I think we got into a good rhythm and good groove,” Hurts said of the first half. “We were able to move the ball down the field in the first half and in the second half, there are a lot of things that I have to watch the tape on to be able to pinpoint obviously maintaining aggression is one thing and maintaining rhythmic ball play. Then just going out there and executing, ultimately. So you always look yourselves in the mirror with that.”
SEATTLE ― Mike Gartner once said, “Goals for me are a little like bananas; they come in bunches.”
Considering that the pure goal scorer finished his Hall of Fame career with 708, that’s a lot of potassium.
It summarizes Owen Tippett’s start to the year. And yes, he has heard the quote.
“I don’t know if it’s anything in particular or it’s just nice to see one go in and it gives you the confidence going forward,” he said. “But definitely, I definitely feel that way at times.”
In the first 36 games of the season, the forward has 11 goals and 22 points. Five of those goals came in the first seven games of the season, and two have come in the last three games — which means 26 games in the middle saw him find the back of the net just four times.
Flyers coach Rick Tocchet recently said Tippett is chasing consistency and wants to see him stack games. But it’s not just goal scoring, it’s about playing well overall. Essentially, he wants to see him lay a strong foundation — brick by brick.
“Yeah, for me, it’s just the details,” Tocchet said at Climate Pledge Arena on Sunday. I think he’s been starting to play real well. [Denver] Barkey has helped him, and [Sean Couturier], and I think the line’s been pretty good for us.
Flyers right wing Owen Tippett scoring a third-period goal against Vancouver Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko.
“I think Tipp, there’s the little things for him, he can stay detailed, he looks really good out there, especially off the neutral zone or off the rush — that’s what his talent is. But I still think there’s stuff around the net, in the slot … that he’s getting better at, and we’re going to keep working with him when it comes to those things.”
It’s been only three games, but the line of Tippett, Barkey, and Couturier has been off to a hot start.
Among Flyers lines that have played at least 20 minutes together this season, Money Puck has the trio No. 2 in expected goals percentage (73.3%). They are tied for eighth in expected goals (2.2) and have the fourth-best expected goals against (0.8).
According to Natural Stat Trick, when they are on the ice at five-on-five, the Flyers have 61.29% of the shot attempts, including 10 high-danger chances to just four against. They have outshot opponents across their almost 28 minutes together, 19-8, have had 17 scoring chances to nine against, and have two goals to one allowed.
Both of the goals were scored by Tippett.
“We try to talk a lot, as much as possible,” Couturier said. “Me being in the middle, try to control the play as much as I can and let him use his feet wide when he can. And then offensively, I think it’s just about finding the support areas and the open areas to create some chances, some opportunities.
“Lately, with Denver joining our line, it’s been clicking. He’s a smart little player who makes a lot of good little plays. So, yeah, just trying to build, and I think we have a lot of potential as a line to grow, and it’s fun to be a part of.”
The trio is having fun, and Tippett has been excelling lately. He scored a highlight-reel goal against the Vancouver Canucks, whom the Flyers play in British Columbia on Tuesday. And while Tippett is dazzling to watch when he can get into open ice, Tocchet says the next step for the 6-foot-1, 210-pound winger is to bury pucks around the net.
But it all comes down to consistency.
“I think, obviously, there’s a little bit of a kind of dip there, I think halfway through the first half,” he said. “I guess, but I’m feeling better about it now.”
“I think just doing everything I can to be ready,” he added when asked what he’s doing to try and be more consistent. “Obviously, body first, and making sure the mindset stays the same each and every game, no matter kind of what happens game to game or even within a game.”
Considering that Tippett has four goals in nine career games against the Seattle Kraken, whom the Flyers play on Sunday (8 p.m., NBCSP), it’s not a bad place to keep stacking.
“He’s a hot streak type of guy. He’s got a [heck] of a shot,” Tocchet said. “Sometimes I’d like to see him kind of just hit the net a little bit more, because he’s got a [heck] of a shot. You don’t have to be so fine sometimes.”
“A lot of goal scorers, they can hit the little orange in the net type of thing. But sometimes you just got to shoot it like it’s a basketball and the goals will go in.”
Breakaways
The Flyers will sport the same lineup that they’ve been using for the last few games. It means Barkey and defenseman Travis Sanheim, who each left the last game in Chicago before the holiday break early, are good to go. … Dan Vladař will get the start in goal against the Kraken. The Czech netminder is 7-1-1 with a 2.05 goals-against average and .905 save percentage against the team from the Pacific Northwest.
OKLAHOMA CITY — Chet Holmgren had 29 points and nine rebounds, and the Oklahoma City Thunder pulled away in the second half for a 129-104 victory over the 76ers on Sunday, ending a two-game skid.
Holmgren made 12 of 17 shots, including 2 of 4 from three-point range for Oklahoma City (27-5), which was coming off consecutive losses to the San Antonio Spurs.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 27 points, five assists and two steals, and Jalen Williams added 14 points and six assists for the NBA-leading Thunder.
Gilgeous-Alexander made 10 of 13 field goals and shot 7 for 9 from the line before sitting out the fourth quarter. He scored at least 20 points for the 103rd consecutive game.
Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey (left) led the team in scoring with 28 points against the Thunder.
Tyrese Maxey scored 28 points, Quentin Grimes had 13 and former Oklahoma City star Paul George added 12 for the Sixers (16-14), which played without injured starter Joel Embiid (ankle). Philadelphia committed 23 turnovers leading to 31 Oklahoma City points.
George received a warm welcome from the Oklahoma City crowd. His 2019 trade to the Clippers helped shape the NBA champion Thunder, who received Gilgeous-Alexander and later Williams in the deal.
The Thunder made their first nine field goals, but Maxey helped the Sixers keep it close with 23 first-half points. His three-pointer with 1 minute, 42 seconds left in the second quarter gave Philadelphia a 61-59 lead. But Gilgeous-Alexander’s 13-footer with 36.2 seconds left gave Oklahoma City a 64-62 lead at the break.
Oklahoma City took control in the third quarter, outscoring Philadelphia 38-24 for a 102-86 lead heading into the fourth. Gilgeous-Alexander scored 11 points in the third before taking a seat.
The Sixers continue their roadtrip with the Memphis Grizzlies up next on Tuesday night (8 p.m., NBC10, Peacock).
OKLAHOMA CITY — VJ Edgecombe’s patience on the court is undeniable.
One might expect the third overall pick in June’s NBA draft to be anxious about making an impact. But the 6-foot-5 shooting guard picks his spots while deferring to Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, and Paul George, the 76ers’ three maximum-salary players.
“The ultimate goal is just winning,” Edgecombe said. “I just want to win, to be honest. I know I was picked [No. 3], but they brought me here just so I can make plays. We have three prolific scorers. I don’t have to score the ball. I have to pick my times, but I must stay aggressive also. But I’m also a player that just wants to win.
“So whatever that takes, if it takes me guarding the best players on the defensive end, if that takes me playmaking, whatever, getting in the paint just to make plays for everyone else, I will do that.”
Staying aggressive has made him a human highlight film with his high-flying dunks. And it allows him to showcase his overall skill set when needed. Folks are still raving about his season-opening performance against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden on Oct. 22.
That night, the 20-year-old scored 34 points to help lead the Sixers to victory. The performance placed him in the same rarified air as Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain and future Hall of Famer LeBron James.
It was the third-highest scoring debut in NBA history behind Chamberlain’s 43 points on Oct. 24, 1959, and Frank Selvy’s 35 on Nov. 30, 1954. Edgecombe’s 14 first-quarter points set a record for the most in the opening period of an NBA debut, surpassing James’ 12 points on Oct. 29, 2003.
But that was Embiid’s first game since February of last season, and George was sidelined with left-knee injury management. So the Sixers needed Edgecombe’s scoring prowess. Since then, the rookie has shown his scoring ability in spurts. Sometimes he’ll dominate play in a quarter or for a half — when needed. But other than that, Edgecombe defers to the Big Three.
Sixers guard VJ Edgecombe is averaging 15.8 points a game.
He took averages of 15.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, and 1.2 steals into Sunday’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Paycom Center.
“It comes with patience,” he said. “It comes with just learning the game. I know as the No. 3 pick, but I’m on a team with people that can do that. They can score 30 a night. I can still score. I just want to win. Whatever it takes, that’s the most important thing.”
Sixers coach Nick Nurse praised Edgecombe for having a “really good feel for the game.” He noted that the rookie doesn’t get sped up during games. Still, Nurse would not mind seeing more.
“I would say, I probably would lean on him to be a little bit more aggressive,” the coach said. “I think there’s more opportunities for him to use his abilities, especially in transition, up the floor, etc.
“So, again, great feel for it. You know me well enough that I’m always pushing these guys to go a little bit more on the aggressive side, not necessarily for their own shots, but just to play-make. Get in there and draw two defenders, draw three defenders. Figure out how to start doing that and make the right play, create on offense.”
While the classical music world knew Gary Graffman as a distinguished visiting concert pianist, Philadelphia was his launching pad and artistic home over roughly eight decades. He was both a student and president at the Curtis Institute of Music, nurturing young talents to international fame before his death on Saturday in New York. He was 97.
His death was confirmed by his longtime publicist.
The New York City-born pianist arrived at Curtis at age 7. He graduated at age 17 and played roughly 100 concerts a year between the ages of 20 and 50 before retiring from touring due to a compromised right hand. Diagnosed with focal dystonia (a neurological disorder), he went on to premiere works for the left hand by Jennifer Higdon and William Bolcom.
Mr. Graffman returned to Curtis as a teacher in 1980, became director in 1986, and the president of the conservatory in 1995, with a teaching studio encompassing nearly 50 students, including Yuja Wang and Lang Lang among others. He performed on numerous occasions with the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1947 to 2003.
Former Curtis Institute director Gary Graffman during a 1989 piano lesson with Angela Au, then 13.
He stepped down from the faculty at age 92 in 2021, mainly due to travel challenges, having commuted for years between New York and his Philadelphia home at the Wanamaker House on Walnut Street. Yet he maintained a family-like association with students at his longtime 57th Street Manhattan home that was filled with antiques he acquired over many visits to China. He joked that he had cleaned out the continent, saying (with his characteristic humor), “There’s no more left. All gone!”
Mr. Graffman’s interest in nonmusical matters helped ease his transition out of full-time touring. Often accompanied by his wife, Naomi (who preceded him in death in 2019 at age 90), he projected a been-there-done-that attitude and was relieved not to have more comprehensive ailments, having been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. “It’s only your hand,” he told commentator Zsolt Bognár in an extended, candid interview for Living the Classical Life, a distinguished series of podcasts.
Naomi and Gary Graffman.
Having started playing piano at age 3 under the guidance of his Russian-heritage parents, Mr. Graffman began studying in earnest in 1936 at Curtis. Though he went on to study at Columbia University and to win the Leventritt Competition, his career effectively began at age 17 after winning the Rachmaninoff Fund competition, as documented in a short squib in the New York Times, dated March 28, 1947:
“Gary Graffman of 226 West Ninety-seventh Street, New York, made his debut this afternoon with the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy, playing Rachmaninoff’s Second piano concerto. The 18-year-old pianist was recalled to the stage several times, amid shouts of ‘bravo’ from the more than 3,000 persons in the Academy of Music.”
Gary Graffman’s left hand rests on sheet music of composition by Prado. File photograph.
Years of less-formal studies followed with the legendarily strong-minded Russian pianist Vladimir Horowitz, from whom Mr. Graffman learned how to bring out the individual voice of a student. During lessons, Horowitz never went to the keyboard to demonstrate how he would play a particular phrase.
From there, Mr. Graffman had a top-of-the-line career. He recorded much of the romantic-era piano literature for RCA and Columbia, and with some of the great orchestras of the United States. Most notably, he recorded his signature Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein.
But while recording Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concertos 2 and 3 in Philadelphia with Eugene Ormandy, Mr. Graffman began noticing finger problems that, at the time, he was able to work around.
Gary Graffman in 2006 near his retirement.
Like many musicians experiencing such difficulties, it was initially assumed (even by his wife) that he wasn’t practicing enough.
At age 50, he canceled engagements but managed to record Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, which was used for the soundtrack of the Woody Allen movie Manhattan, and pursued various treatments.
Back then, focal dystonia was little known or understood. Mr. Graffman’s colleague Leon Fleisher had been struggling with the ailment for years, finally having a late-in-life resurgence as a two-handed pianist. Not Mr. Graffman.
He made the Ravel Piano Concerto for the Left Hand the center of his repertoire, explored other left-hand works commissioned by the Viennese pianist Paul Wittgenstein (who lost his right arm in World War I) and performed new left-hand works, including concertos by Bolcom, Daron Hagen, and Ned Rorem.
Though he is often characterized as having been limited to repertoire for the left hand only, the practical truth is that Mr. Graffman maintained some use of his afflicted hand, allowing him to perform works that made limited use of the right hand, such as Alfred Schnittke’s Piano Quintet and Jennifer Higdon’s 1999 Scenes from the Poet’s Dream, commissioned by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.
Yuja Wang takes her final lesson with Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute of Music in 2008.
Returning to Curtis, Mr. Graffman was good to his word in teaching each student as an individual whose journey was yet to be discovered.
Ignat Solzhenitsyn, who graduated in 1995, became a conductor with Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and the Kirov Opera. Yuja Wang (2008) has pursued a mixture of new and traditional repertoire, also giving marathon concerts of the Rachmaninoff piano concertos all in one day. Though Mr. Graffman was generally against piano competitions, Hao Chen Zhang (2012) had trouble establishing his career until entering and winning the Van Cliburn Competition.
Most interesting among Mr. Graffman’s students was, perhaps, Lang Lang (2002). His career seemed to be launched by filling in for Andre Watts at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival. Mr. Graffman maintained that event only sped up the inevitable.
For years, Mr. Graffman had Lang Lang trying out repertoire in private events, starting small with Mendelssohn and working his way up to bigger repertoire. When Lang Lang was sidelined by tendinitis around 2017, he reportedly turned to Mr. Graffman to find his way back to the concert stage.
Lang Lang with teacher Gary Graffman at Curtis.
Financially, Curtis thrived during Mr. Graffman’s tenure. From 1985 to 2005, annual giving rose from $300,000 to $1.8 million and the endowment went from $45.5 million in to $140 million.
The major blot on Mr. Graffman’s administrative career, however, was considerable. In 2019, violinist Lara St. John came forward with reports of faculty rape during her mid-1980s student years at Curtis. Investigations concluded that Mr. Graffman had failed to take appropriate action on her reports of sexual assault.
No doubt, Mr. Graffman will be most remembered as a pianist. Truly a child of the post-Arturo Toscanini generation, Mr. Graffman played with a deep respect for the letter of the score. Often, Mr. Graffman’s Russian heritage could roar into the fore during, say, cadenzas of a Beethoven piano concerto. His impish wit could often be heard in performances of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. And not surprisingly.
Former Curtis Institute director Gary Graffman.
Offstage, Mr. Graffman projected a sense of fun, which is often apparent in his 1981 memoir, I Really Should be Practicing. When Japanese-born pianist Mitsuko Uchida declared having great artistic affinity for the Central European Jewish community, Mr. Graffman began sending her Hanukkah cards. Regarding Wang, he said that she was fascinated by arts beyond the music saying, with mock incredulity, that she went to museums “because she really wants to!” When recordings by the British pianist Joyce Hatto were scandalously discovered to have been stolen from other pianists in 2007, Mr. Graffman quipped that he would be ”deeply offended” if his recordings weren’t among them.
Mr. Graffman leaves no immediate survivors. Memorials will be announced at a later date.
One person died after two helicopters collided midair Sunday in Atlantic County, according to authorities.
The Enstrom helicopters collided about 11:25 a.m. near Hammonton Municipal Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said. One helicopter was engulfed in flames near U.S. Routes 30 and 206, the Hammonton police department said in a Facebook post.
Only the pilots were aboard each aircraft, the FAA said; police said one person died, and another was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. Their identities were not immediately made public.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating, police said, and no additional details about what caused the collision were immediately available.
The crash drew responses from the state’s U.S. senators on social media.
“Reports of this morning’s fatal helicopter crash over South Jersey are horrifying and tragic,” Sen. Cory Booker wrote on X. “My heart is with those impacted and their families.”
Booker said his office was in contact with the NTSB, requesting more information on the crash.
Reports of this morning’s fatal helicopter crash over South Jersey are horrifying and tragic. My heart is with those impacted and their families. My office is in contact with the NTSB and requesting more information about the details of this tragedy.
“I’m heartbroken to learn of the fatal helicopter crash that occurred in Hammonton, NJ earlier this morning,” Sen. Andy Kim also posted to X. “I know our community will rally behind the family of the individual who lost their life as we navigate this terrible tragedy.”
Hammonton is about 30 miles northwest of Atlantic City.
The link to request plowing on Philly 311’s online portal became “inoperable and experienced technical difficulties” officials learned during Friday’s ice and sleet storm, Philadelphia Managing Director Adam Thiel said in a statement. Residents can call 311 for basic city services — from graffiti cleanup to pothole removal — on weekdays, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., but the portal is available after-hours.
“Our Streets Department is on the front lines of responding to any weather event, including this one,” Thiel said, “and Streets crews, along with many other city workers, have been working 24/7 since [Friday], treating and clearing all roadways in every neighborhood. That critical work continues.”
The lack of it is apparent when the Sixers find themselves trailing, when their offense melts into predictable isolation plays, rushed heaves, and unforced turnovers.
A lack of health is one reason why the odds are against the Sixers’ Big Three ever living up to their lofty expectations. A lack of self-awareness may be another. But the lack of rhythm seems to be the go-to explanation for the team’s 0-4 record when the three maximum-salary players all play.
“I think we need to figure it out and look at it, right?” coach Nick Nurse said when asked if he’s concerned. “I mean, it’s been a little sporadic as far as when they played together. That doesn’t help. I mean, I’d really like 10 or 15, 20 straight games so we can kind of start building some stuff and figuring out when to go where and get a little bit of rhythm and synergy. It’s just so choppy when they play together as far as in consecutive games. It’s hard to build rhythm.”
The trio won’t get an opportunity to build rhythm in Sunday’s matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Paycom Center.
Embiid will miss the contest with a sprained right ankle and right knee injury management. Meanwhile, George is probable with left knee injury management.
But if we’re honest, the Sixers (16-13) have no business remaining winless in games featuring their three best players.
Sure, George is finally regaining his old form after missing 15 games due to left-knee injury management and another one due to a sprained right ankle. And Embiid, no longer a dominant force on both ends of the court, has lacked his usual bounce and lateral movement. Sunday will mark the 17th game he’ll miss while dealing with injuries to both knees and now his ankle.
The Sixers’ tempo has even suffered when the 7-foot-2, 280-pounder is on the floor. Instead of being a fast-paced and athletic ball-moving squad, the Sixers’ offense becomes stagnant. Defensively, has been a struggle for the 2023 MVP, who is a seven-time All-Star and three-time All-Defensive selection.
No longer fearing him, teams are running pick-and-rolls to get Embiid involved in defensive actions and switching onto him. And they’ve been successful due to his inability to move as quickly as he used to laterally and his constantly appearing out of position. That has led to players feasting on Embiid, who rarely jumps or comes out to contest shots. Nor is he able to consistently prevent players he once dominated from getting to the rim.
But he’s averaged 29 points on 18 for 32 shooting — including shooting 60% on three-pointers — over his last two games, which featured the Big Three. Yet, that didn’t make a difference against two opponents the Sixers should have defeated.
They suffered a 114-106 loss to the struggling Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday at the Xfinity Mobile Arena. At the time, the Sixers could have used the excuse of playing without three of their most athletic players in VJ Edgecombe, Dominick Barlow, and Quentin Grimes due to illness.
Edgecombe, Barlow, and Grimes returned for Friday’s game against the Chicago Bulls at the United Center. The Sixers were supposed to avenge their Nov. 4 loss in Chicago, a game in which they squandered a 24-point lead.
Joel Embiid has not been the same type of defensive deterrent for opposing teams as he has been in past seasons.
Instead, the Sixers suffered a 109-102 loss after shooting 23.8% in the fourth quarter — including missing nine of 10 three-pointers. George scored three fourth-quarter points on 1-for-3 shooting, but that’s a little bit misleading.
Despite George having a hot hand in the third quarter and the start of the fourth, the Sixers stopped involving him in the offense. As a result, George didn’t attempt a shot after re-entering the game with 5 minutes, 26 seconds remaining.
Meanwhile, Maxey made just 2 of 9 shots while scoring six of his 27 points in the fourth quarter. Embiid had four points on 1-for-4 shooting in the final quarter on a night he finished with a game-high 31 points.
This comes after George said on Tuesday that figuring “out how to find rhythm, playing off one another” was the next step for the Big Three to get a victory.
On Friday, he was asked the same question.
“It just comes down to us locking in,” George said. “Again, this was a game that we should have closed. A game we should have won. Just comes down to us locking in down the stretch. Again, this is a possession game, and close the game out. That’s when we need to be at our best.”
But while those three players are “locking in” and trying to build rhythm, the role players have been uninvolved.
Paul George says the Sixers need to start “locking in” and closing out winnable games.
“I think we have to get better on both ends of the floor,” George said. “We have been getting stagnant out there, and that’s made us play a little slower. [Friday], that affected us, especially down the stretch. Chicago was able to dial into us, and they made the plays in the last few minutes. That was the game for us.”
Despite their struggles, the Sixers remained in fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings heading into Saturday’s slate of games. Yet, they are about to face their toughest test of the season in OKC. This is the second stop of a five-game road trip for the Sixers.
The defending NBA champion Thunder have the league’s best record at 26-5 and are 14-1 at home. Oklahoma City is precisely the type of squad that a team still trying to develop rhythm wouldn’t want to face.
“What’s tough is that we haven’t been able to have much practice time with all three of us on the floor,” Maxey said. “And that’s something we need to deal with, because the games are different. They are much different. We missed a lot of shots that we should have made. Those things happen.
Way back in 2022, when Philadelphians gathered on an abandoned pier to watch a man eat a rotisserie chicken, folks on social media began to wonder: “Is Philadelphia a real place?”
Sure, that perception has a lot to do with an unbelievable event that actually happened in the suburbs (Delco never fails to carry its weight), but Philly also saw its fair share of the bizarre this year, too.
As we prepare for what may be one of the most important (and hopefully weirdest!) years in modern Philadelphia history, let’s take some time to look back on the peculiar stories from across the region that punctuated 2025.
Five uh-oh
Kevon Darden was sworn in as a part-time police officer for Collingdale Borough on Jan. 12 and hit the ground running, landing his first arrest just four days later.
The only problem? It was his own.
Pennsylvania State Police charged Darden with terroristic threats and related offenses for an alleged road rage incident in 2023 in which he’s accused of pointing a gun at a driver on the Blue Route in Ridley Township. At the time of the alleged incident Darden was employed as an officer at Cheyney University.
A Pennsylvania State Police vehicle. The agency provided two clean background checks for a Collingdale police officer this year, only to arrest him four days after he started the job.
Here’s the thing — it was state police who provided not one but two clean background checks on Darden to Collingdale officials before he was hired. An agency spokesperson told The Inquirer troopers had to wait on forensic evidence tests and approval from the District Attorney’s Office before filing charges.
Darden subsequently resigned and is scheduled for trial next year in Delaware County Court.
For the Birds
The Eagles’ second Super Bowl win provided a wellspring of wacky — and sometimes dicey — moments on and off the field early this year.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker started the championship run off strong by going viral for misspelling the most popular chant in the city as “E-L-G-S-E-S” during a news conference. Her mistake made the rounds on late night talk shows and was plastered onto T-shirts, beer coozies, and even a license plate. If you think the National Spelling Bee is brutal, you’ve never met Eagles fans.
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts at the line of scrimmage during the fourth quarter of the NFC divisional playoff at Lincoln Financial Field on Jan. 19. The Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Los Angeles Rams 28 to 22.
Then there was the snowy NFC divisional playoff game against the Los Angeles Rams at Lincoln Financial Field; continued drama around the Tush Push (which resulted in Dude Wipes becoming an official sponsor of the team); and Cooper DeJean’s pick-six, a gift to himself and us on his 22nd birthday that helped the Birds trounce the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 in Super Bowl LIX.
As soon as the Eagles won with Jalen Hurts as MVP, Philadelphians let loose, flooding the streets like a drunken green tsunami. Fans scaled poles and tore them down; danced on bus shelters, medic units, and trash trucks; partied with Big Foot, Ben Franklin, and Philly Elmo; and set a bonfire in the middle of Market Street.
Eagles fans party on trash trucks in the streets of Center City after the Birds win in Super Bowl LIX against the Chiefs on Feb. 9.
Finally, there was the parade, a Valentine’s Day love letter to the Eagles from Philadelphia. Among the more memorable moments was when Birds general manager Howie Roseman was hit in the head with a can of beer thrown from the crowd. He took his battle scar in pride, proclaiming from the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum: “I bleed for this city.”
As we say around here, love Hurts.
Throngs of Birds fans lined the Benjamin Franklin Parkway for the Eagles Super Bowl Parade on Feb. 14.
A $40 million goodbye
As far as inanimate objects go, few have experienced more drama in recent Philly history than the SS United States, the 73-year-old, 990-foot luxury liner that was docked for nearly three decades on the Delaware River waterfront.
Supporters spent more than $40 million on rent, insurance, and other measures to keep the ship in Philly with the hopes of returning it to service or at least turning it into a venue. But a rent dispute with the owners of the pier finally led a judge to order the SS United States Conservancy, which owned the vessel, to seek an alternate solution.
Workers on the Walt Whitman Bridge watch from above as the SS United States is pulled by tug boats on the Delaware River.
And so in February, with the help of five tugboats, the ship was hauled out of Philly to prepare it to become the world’s largest artificial reef off the coast of Okaloosa County, Fla.
If the United States has to end somewhere, Florida feels like an apt place.
The ‘Delco Pooper’
While the Eagles’ Tush Push was deemed legal by NFL owners this year, a Delaware County motorist found that another kind of tush push most definitely is not after she was arrested for rage pooping on the hood of a car during a roadway dispute in April.
Captured on video by a teen who witnessed the rear-ending, the incident quickly went viral and put a stain on Delco that won’t be wiped away anytime soon.
Christina Solometo, who was dubbed the “Delco Pooper” on social media, told Prospect Park Police she got into a dispute with another driver, whom she believed began following her. Solometo claimed when she got out of her car the other driver insulted her and so she decided to dump her frustrations on their hood.
A private security guard holds the door open for alleged “Delco Pooper” Christina Solometo following her preliminary hearing Monday at Prospect Park District Court.
“Solometo said, ‘I wanted to punch her in the face, but I pooped on her car instead and went home,’” according to the affidavit.
I’ve written a lot of stories about Delco in my time, but this may be the most absurd.
Hopefully, she won’t be clogging up the court system anymore.
The Delco pope
Delco is large, it contains multitudes, and never was that more clear than when two weeks after the Delco Pooper case broke, a Delco pope was elected.
OK, so Pope Leo XIV is technically a native of Chicago, but he attended undergrad at Villanova University — which, yes, technically straddles Delco and Montgomery County — but Delco’s had a tough year so I’m gonna give it this one.
This video screen grab shows Pope Leo XIV wearing a Villanova University hat gifted to him during a meeting with an Italian heritage group.
Born Robert Prevost, Pope Leo is the first U.S. pope in history and also a citizen of Peru. He earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Villanova in 1977 and an honorary doctor of humanities from the university in 2014.
Center City Sips, the Wednesday Center City happy hour program, long ago earned a reputation as a rite of passage for 20-somethings who are still figuring out how to limit their intake and want to do so in business casual attire.
Things seemed to calm down after the pandemic, but then Philadelphians took Sips to another level and a whole new place this year — the streets.
Videos showed hundreds of people partying in the streets of Midtown Village on Wednesday nights this summer. Granted, the parties look far more calm than when sports fans take over Philly after a big win, but the nearby bar owners who participate in the Sips program said their places sat empty as people brought their own alcohol to drink.
Jason Evenchik, who owns Time, Vintage, Garage, and other bars, told The Inquirer that “No one is inside, and it’s mayhem outside.”
“Instead, he claimed, people are selling alcohol out of their cars and bringing coolers to make their own cocktails. At one point on June 11,Evenchik said, a Tesla blocked a crosswalk while a man made piña coladas with a pair of blenders hooked up to the car,” my colleague Beatrice Forman wrote.
In no way am I condoning this behavior, but those two sentences above may be my among favorite this year. Who thinks to bring a blender — with a car hookup — to make piña coladas at an unauthorized Center City street party on a Wednesday night?
Philly.
Getting trashed
Philadelphians experienced a major city workers strike this summer when Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and AFSCME District Council 33 couldn’t agree on a new contract for the union’s nearly 9,000 members.
Residents with trash arrive at garbage dump site at Caldera Road and Red Lion Road in northeast Philadelphia during the AFSCME District Council 33 workers strike in July.
As a result, things got weird. Dead bodies piled up at the Medical Examiner’s Office; a striking union member was arrested for allegedly slashing the tires of a PGW vehicle; and for eight days in the July heat, garbage heaped up all across Philadelphia. The city set up temporary trash drop-off sites, which often overflowed into what were nicknamed “Parker piles,” but that also set off a firestorm about whether using the sites constituted crossing a picket line.
Wawa Welcome America July Fourth concert headliners LL Cool J and Jazmine Sullivan even pulled out of the show in support of striking workers, resulting in a fantastic “Labor Loves Cool J” meme.
It was all like something out of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. In fact, the gang predicted a trash strike in the 2012 episode “The Gang Recycles Their Trash.”
The real strike lasted eight days before a contract was reached. In true Philly form, AFSCME District Council 33 president Greg Boulware told The Inquirer “nobody’s happy.”
A large pile of trash collects at a city drop-off site during the AFSCME workers strike this summer.
97-year-old gives birth to 16 kids
A local nonagenarian couple became national shellebrities this year for welcoming seven babies in April and nine more in August, proving that age ain’t nothing but a number, as long as you’re a tortoise.
Western Santa Cruz Galapagos tortoise Mommy, and male Abrazzo, left, are shown on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, at the Philadelphia Zoo in Philadelphia, Pa. The hatchlings’ parents, female Mommy and male Abrazzo, are the Zoo’s two oldest animals, each estimated to be around 100 years old.
Mommy and Abrazzo, Western Santa Cruz Galapagos tortoises who reside at the Philadelphia Zoo, made history with their two clutches, becoming the first pair of the critically endangered species in the zoo’s 150-year history to hatch eggs and the first to do so in any accredited zoo since 2019.
Mommy is also the oldest known first-time Galapagos tortoise mom in the world, so it’s safe to say she doesn’t have any time or patience for shenanigans. She’s got 16 heroes in a half shell to raise.
Western Santa Cruz Galapagos tortoise egg hatchling.
Phillies Karen
Taking candy from a baby is one thing — babies don’t need candy anyway — but taking a baseball from a kid at a Phillies game is a deed so foul and off base it’s almost unimaginable.
And yet, that’s exactly what happened at a Phillies-Marlins game in September, when a home run from Harrison Bader landed in the stands and a dad ran from his seat to grab it and give it to his son. A woman who was sitting near where the ball landed marched over to the dad, berated him, and demanded the ball be given her. Taken aback, the father reached into his son’s baseball glove and turned the ball over.
The entire scene was caught on camera and the woman, with her Kate Gosselin-esque hairdo, was immediately dubbed “Phillies Karen” by flabbergasted fans.
While the act technically happened at the Marlins stadium in Miami, Fla., it captured the minds and memes of Philadelphians so much that it deserves inclusion on this list. Phillies Karen has made her way onto T-shirts and coffee mugs, inspired skits at a Savannah Bananas game and the MLB Awards, and she even became a popular Halloween costume.
To this day, “Phillies Karen” remains unidentified, so it’s a safe bet she lives in Florida, where she’ll have better luck with alligators than with people here.
Institutional intrigue
Drama at area institutions this year had Philadelphians sipping tea like we were moms on Christmas morning, and sometimes, left us shaking our fists in the air like we were dads putting up tangled lights.
David Adelman with the Philadelphia 76ers makes a statement at a press conference in the Mayor’s Reception Room in January regarding the Sixers changing directions on the controversial Center City arena. At left is mayor Parker, at right City Council President Kenyatta Johnson and Josh Harris, Sixers owner.
It started early in January, when the billionaire owners of the Sixers surprised the entire city by announcing the team would stay at the South Philly sports complex instead of building their own arena on Market East. The decision came after two years of seemingly using the city, its politicians, and its people as pawns in their game.
Workers gathered outside World Cafe Live before a Town Hall meeting with management in July.
In June, workers staged a walkout at World Cafe Live due to what they claimed was “an unacceptable level of hostility and mismanagement” from its new owners, including its then-CEO, Joseph Callahan. Callahan — who said the owners inherited $6 million in debt and that he wanted to use virtual reality to bolster its revenue — responded by firing some of the workers and threatening legal action. Today, the future of World Cafe Live remains unclear. Callahan stepped down as CEO in September (but remains chairman of the board), the venue’s liquor license expired, and its landlord, the University of Pennsylvania, wants to evict its tenant, with a trial scheduled for January.
Signage at the east entrance to the Philadelphia Art Museum reflects the rebrand of the institution, which was formerly known as the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Finally, late this year at the Philadelphia Art Museum, things got more surreal than a Salvador Dalí painting, starting with an institutional rebrand that surprised some board members, didn’t land well with the public, and resulted in a lot of PhART jokes. In November, museum CEO Sasha Suda was fired following an investigation by an outside law firm that focused, in part, on increases to her salary, a source told The Inquirer. Suda’s lawyer called it a “a sham investigation” and Suda quickly sued her former employer, claiming that “her efforts to modernize the museum clashed with a small, corrupt, and unethical faction of the board intent on preserving the status quo.”
Nobody knows where all of this will go, but it’s likely to have more drama than a Caravaggio.
Driving west on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Mary Wright was hoping for a Chick-fil-A. But as she watched the limited options on road signs pass, fond memories of roast beef sandwiches lured her to Roy Rogers.
“My mother liked Roy Rogers,” said Wright, who is in her 60s and from Collingswood. “That’s how long it’s been around.”
That’s pretty typical of the food offerings on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, where old-school brands such as Auntie Anne’s, Baskin-Robbins, and Sbarro dot many of the 17 service plazas.
That puts the turnpike behind the times compared with similar toll roads in New Jersey and New York, where travelers can hold out for newer brands like Chick-fil-A, Pret a Manger, and Shake Shack.
“I think the older generation likes Roy Rogers and all that, but younger people are more likely to like Shake Shack, for example,” said John Zhang, professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.
Once on the toll road, people are faced with dining options decided almost entirely by one company. It’s what Zhang called a “captive consumer” environment. The reasons for this involve state policy, a corporate contract, and a little business history.
Mary Wright and Rich Misdom of Collingswood consider their options at the Roy Rogers located in the Peter J. Camiel Service Plaza on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in late November.
‘Applegreen determines the food concepts’
The commercial stakes are significant:More than 550,000 people drive on the turnpike every day, according to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, and about 7.4 million travelers are expected to have used the toll road around the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
Though the turnpike commission oversees the operation, a company called Applegreen primarily decides which restaurants fill the state’s 17 service plazas, according to turnpike commission spokesperson Marissa Orbanek.
Applegreen runs travel plazas in 12 states, including New Jersey and New York. The company, based in Ireland, was taken private for $878 million in 2020 and is majority-owned by the large private equity firm Blackstone Inc. Applegreen did not respond to requests to comment for this story.
For access to the service plazas, Applegreen pays the turnpike commission 4% of its gross food and beverage sales, amounting to about $2.4 million per year, Orbanek said.
“Applegreen determines the food concepts and seeks approval from the commission,” Orbanek said. “So the turnpike is certainly involved in this process.”
Of the 15 restaurant chains Applegreen lists on its website, nine appear on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. There are nine Auntie Anne’s, eight Burger Kings, one Cinnabon, seven Dunkin’s, two Popeyes, seven Roy Rogers restaurants, four Sbarros, 10 Starbucks outposts, and one Subway restaurant, according to the turnpike commission website. Pennsylvania also has six Baskin-Robbins locations, it shows.
In other states, Applegreen’s brands include Chick-fil-A, Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs, Panda Express, Panera, Pret a Manger, and Shake Shack.
The service plaza contract dates back to 2006, when the turnpike commission signed a 30-year lease agreement with HMS Host Family Restaurants, giving the company “exclusive rights” to food and drink sales, Orbanek said.
Seven Dunkin’ locations dot the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Until then, Applegreen decides which eatery goes where.
What’s with all the Roy Rogers restaurants?
When Applegreen bought HMS Host, it became the franchisee of the Roy Rogers restaurants on the turnpike, said Jim Plamondon, who co-owns the Frederick, Md.-based Roy Rogers brand with his brother.
Plamondon wants to keep the restaurants on the turnpike past 2036 — a decision that will depend in part on whether Applegreen sticks with the restaurants it acquired when it bought HMS Host.
“It’s all about developing relationships and hoping to grow with our operators,” Plamondon said.
As for Roy Rogers’ prominent position on the turnpike, that dates back to the 1980s, when Marriott Corp. managed the service plazas, Plamondon said. Back then, the restaurant was owned by Marriott — it had a licensing agreement with the showbiz cowboy of the same name — and Plamondon’s dad was an executive in the company.
These days, Plamondon said, nostalgia and curiosity for something a bit different have driven the restaurant chain’s modest growth: It has opened a few new locations in recent years, including one in Cherry Hill, and has a devoted fan base.
Fast-food restaurants are facing a number of challenges in the current economic climate. Wages and tariffs have pushed prices up, and low-income consumers in particular have started to reduce spending. Even McDonald’s, the largest fast-food chain in the U.S., has seen nearly double-digit decreases in traffic among low-income Americans, the company said in its third-quarter earnings report last month.
McDonald’s CEO Christopher Kempczinski told investors on a call announcing the third-quarter results that low-income consumers were having to absorb significant inflation, which was affecting spending behavior.
Roy Rogers has seen some of these challenges as well, Plamondon said. Costs have gone up, margins are thin, and people’s tastes are always changing. People are eating more chicken and want spicier options, he added. .
“It’s a really good menu, it’s great quality food, and I think our brand absolutely has a future to it, because at the end of the day, it’s about the food.”
Changing tastes
The Wharton School’s Zhang agreed that consumers’ tastes have shifted. “People increasingly want ethnic foods, and younger people want spicier food,” he said. “And people want to go upscale nowadays.”
Zhang noted a number of older brands on the Applegreen roster, such as Sbarro, the pizza restaurant that has faced two bankruptcies in the years since the turnpike commission approved the 30-year lease.
In terms of market forces, Zhang said, turnpike service plazas are “an aberration.” Unlike those in most suburban or urban areas, service plaza customers are willing to settle for what’s available, and pay more to get in and out, he said.
“If you’re a traveler on a holiday, you tend to be less price sensitive,” Zhang said. “You just want to have your food very quickly.”
A sign at the Peter J. Camiel service plaza on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
That puts turnpike service stops at odds with the shifting consumer preferences that have bedeviled the fast-food industry over the last couple of decades, Zhang said, including the addition of food delivery services like DoorDash and GrubHub.
Zhang said that the lack of order-ahead options at turnpike eateries is puzzling. For people traveling down a strip of highway, it seems like calling ahead would make sense.
“For them, the customers just pass by once,” he said.
For Mary Wright and her traveling companion, Rich Misdom, their recent Roy Rogers visit did not exactly ignite enthusiasm.
“This is, like, old-school kind of stuff,” Misdom said, adding he was disappointed that this Roy Rogers restaurant was not serving roast beef. He settled for a cheeseburger, while Wright got a chicken sandwich.
“We don’t come here to fine dine,” Misdom said, between bites. “Let’s put it that way.”
