It is hard to lose in a more excruciating and taxing way than the Sixers did Sunday night, falling in a double-overtime thriller to Jalen Johnson and the Atlanta Hawks. Joel Embiid and Paul George both blasted through their expected minutes restrictions and played more than they have all season, Tyrese Maxey played 52 minutes and the Sixers, as close to full strength as they have been all year, fell short.
But, as Maxey and George both professed at their lockers after the game, the Sixers must be able to flush the heartbreak of this one as quickly as possible and get back on track. The Washington Wizards will be in town on Tuesday after the Sixers enjoy a much-needed day off, and the marathon will continue.
Embiid was not the only key member of the Sixers to return on Sunday; rookie VJ Edgecombe also ended his three-game absence against the Hawks.
In this week's 5 Sixers thoughts, hear what Embiid and Edgecombe had to say following their returns, plus more on all things Sixers:
Joel Embiid's postgame comments
• Embiid on how he felt physically after his first game in over two weeks:
"I feel okay. Pretty good. Good to get back out there and play basketball."
• Embiid on how he felt he coexisted with Maxey and George in the trio's first game together this season:
"Good. Keep playing. Keep playing with each other and all of us [will] keep getting better."
• Embiid on the biggest hurdle that was holding him out of action:
"Obviously, I had a few court sessions, and sometimes it responds well and sometimes it doesn't. But if you feel like you've got a chance to play, you play, and it's not too bad. If it doesn't respond the way you want it to, then you make that decision."
• Embiid on how he has managed his absence mentally as he tried not to grow frustrated:
"It feels okay. Obviously, like I said, it's going to happen, so you can't put your head down and whine about it. You keep working hard and get back at it… What can you do? The only thing you can do is keep doing the right things, focusing on the right things, and then just go from there."
• Embiid on what led to him being upgraded from out to questionable for Sunday's game:
"I don't want to talk about the injury. Obviously, we had a tough game, we lost… We put ourselves in tough situations the whole game, so we've just got to fix it."
• Embiid on how he felt in the first half versus the second half:
"Obviously I had the Boston game [opening night], but up until Toronto [his last appearance] I was actually getting back to myself and feeling like myself. Defensively, I looked so much better than I looked in the previous five games. [I want to] get back to that MVP level, and obviously, the other thing happens. Tonight, obviously, I thought the first half was pretty good, moved really well, and it's been almost a month and we've only had about two court sessions going up and down. It's going to be tough. It's just like the Boston game, feels like the first game of the season. You build on it, and I’m not even mad about tonight. I'm just happy that I got a chance to play a game of basketball, build on it, and you go from there next game. Whether shots fall or not, I don't really judge myself based on if shots fall or not. It's all about how I move laterally, jumping and all that stuff. Tonight was a good step towards that. Felt good in the first half and, obviously in the second half it was a little rough, but it should be what that first half looked like, and go from there."
• Embiid on how difficult it was for him to not be able to play in the second overtime period:
"It's tough. Obviously, I fought hard to be even in that first overtime. And then obviously in the second overtime, I wasn't allowed to keep going. Yeah, it's tough. You want to be out there, especially because we lost. If we would have won, I wouldn't have cared, but I still felt like there's something I could have done, just being on the floor. It's tough, but got to move forward, can't look back, and [we have to] try to learn from it and get better."
• Embiid, who played all 30 of his minutes alongside Maxey, on the team's heavy dose of familiar two-man actions between them:
"Obviously, when you get down to it, game is tight, you always feel like we always have that in our back pocket. We haven't been able to use it, at least for my first seven games that I played. But when the game is close, you feel like we know we have that connection. I think, for me this year, we're good at it. We’ve got that chemistry. But as we go on for the rest of the season, I think it's all about, obviously, involving everybody else, playing together. We could probably win, especially when I'm feeling good and I’m short-rolling, I can make nine of those 10 shots every single time. It's easy to get there, but I think it's also better when everybody else is involved and we click together."
• Embiid on if he feels a particular sense of urgency to be back on the floor helping the Sixers win because of the enormous workload Maxey has been shouldering:
"The only thing I'll say is I do feel bad. But, it’s unfortunate, you can only control what you can control. I don't think there's any – if anybody thinks that I don't want to play every game, that's their problem, but I think history has shown that I would do anything just to play one game of basketball – so I do feel bad, obviously, the minutes that he has to play, the load that he has to handle, I've been there. I know how it feels, but, you’ve just got to have the trust in what you're doing and in God and be okay with the fact that whatever happens, happens. I have something happen to me like it happened, what can I do? Just go out and rehab and come back as soon as possible. That’s the mindset. But, obviously, he's having a great season. MVP-like season, extremely proud of him [and] what he's been able to accomplish, obviously carrying the load and he's doing a fantastic job."
MORE: Sixers-Hawks instant observations
VJ Edgecombe's postgame comments
• Edgecombe on how his calf felt after the game:
"Calf is great. I feel great. I was able to run up and down with no pain or anything like that. I'm not sore or anything right now, so God is good. My calf is great."
• Edgecombe, who was not available for crunch time in the fourth quarter or either overtime period, on if it was challenging for him to not be available for those high-leverage minutes:
"Obviously from a player's standpoint, you want to be on the floor. But obviously I'm proud of my teammates, just how they fought. Obviously there's nothing I can do about the minute restrictions right now, but I'm just happy that my teammates fought at the end of the game."
• Edgecombe on his first impressions of sharing the floor with Embiid, Maxey and George at once:
"To be honest, I'm just playing. I'm just out there hooping, for real. Knowing the spots, knowing where they get to, knowing some situations. I just [stay] ready the whole time, just get out in transition, try to get something easy, try to be a threat, take some pressure off of them."
• Edgecombe on what his time on the sidelines has been like as he has worked on his calf issue:
"Credit to the medical staff. We've been just doing a lot of treatment, all the necessary steps for me to be 100 percent. It worked. It worked, because I feel great. Minutes restrictions, all because we're trying to take precautionary steps, just so we don't overload my calf or something [in my] first game back or anything like that. But overall, yes, I feel great, and credit to them."
• Edgecombe on Maxey playing 52 minutes and continuing to handle such an enormous workload:
"52 minutes is a lot. We try to keep the game to 48, no overtimes. But he's elite. He's elite. He's so dynamic, someone that's just, like, really good at basketball. I just sit there and be like – the shots he makes, I expect it now, at this point. Especially just being alongside him, just watching him work out. The shots I see him make, the layups I see him make, he doesn't surprise me anymore with what he can do."
Dominick Barlow has a firm grasp on starting power forward job
Sixers head coach Nick Nurse made it clear after the Sixers' very first official practice of training camp that Barlow, the 22-year-old power forward inked to a two-way contract, was standing out. He started on opening night and swung the game in the Sixers' favor and started the next night before missing multiple weeks with an elbow laceration.
Trendon Watford briefly usurped Barlow in that starting power forward spot, and George has been expected to log the bulk of his minutes there, too. But Barlow, now perfectly healthy, just keeps strengthening his case to start and play heavy minutes. Barlow played 35 minutes as the Sixers' starter in between George and Embiid in the frontcourt on Sunday, then got up to 45 minutes by playing both overtimes.
Before the game, Barlow's last coach showered him with praise.
"He really knows how to play. And he gave us [good minutes], in a stretch where we really needed someone to come in and not only give us good minutes, but kind of connect as a team," Hawks head coach Quin Snyder said. "And I think it's unusual for a player in that position to have that kind of impact on the group. So I'm really happy to see him doing well. And I'm not surprised as far as, he's got a great feel for the game, can pass, handle, just a smart player. Very committed to helping the team."
Barlow has only gotten better of late, and even as his offensive rebounding might have cooled a little bit, he has found other ways to help the Sixers win. He makes great decisions in advantage situations when Maxey draws blitzes, has terrific chops as a cutter and has shown some situational dribble-drive scoring ability. Knowing what you are and what you are not can be an enormous asset for an NBA player. Barlow is a terrific example – he has a tremendous blend of size and athleticism, and is singularly focused on utilizing it in ways that benefit the players around him. He rarely gets out of his element. He is a keeper.
Dominick Barlow had a strong showing against his former team as the Sixers lost to the Hawks on Sunday:
45 minutes
10 points (5-9 FG)
6 rebounds (2 offensive)
3 assists
3 steals
2 blocks
All of Barlow's made shots and defensive highlights: pic.twitter.com/dyHz5X9qy9— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) December 1, 2025
"It's been fun playing with Barlow," George said. "He's that Swiss Army knife that kind of just does everything, plays the right way, plays hard, has a great basketball IQ, kind of knows where to be on the floor, and he's athletic, so it's just a live, young body that's huge for us. But it's been fun. It's been fun to share the floor with him."
MORE: Two games added to Sixers' schedule
Tyrese Maxey, Jared McCain relish chance to play with "Coach Kyle"
Lost in the Sixers' forgettable win over the Brooklyn Nets on Friday that was more memorable for Andre Drummond's knee injury than anything else – more on the veteran center coming next – was that Kyle Lowry made his second appearance of the season and his first true rotation cameo. Lowry, 39, is on this team because of his leadership in the locker room. The Sixers have a crowded guard mix, and even with Edgecombe sidelined in Brooklyn they were not that desperate to find another guard to play. Why did Nurse go with Lowry for 11 minutes?
"Just getting down point guards and ball-handlers," Nurse said. "I think VJ's obviously our backup point and Watford's kind of our third point, and just trying to figure out how we can maneuver through the minutes that Tyrese is out, and kind of decided on that this morning. Just thought the matchups were going to be okay, and we kind of planned for some things we could run with those guys in there, and it worked out okay."
Nurse had to be thrilled that his team outscored Brooklyn by 10 points in Lowry's 11 minutes, but nobody was more excited than Maxey and Jared McCain, two of Lowry's most influenced pupils. Each player was excited to share the floor with him for a brief stretch.
"It was great," Maxey said after Friday's game. "I love playing with Kyle. He's a coach on the court, and I think that was the first time I played with Coach Kyle this year, so that was really fun."
The next day at practice, McCain referred to Lowry as "elite" as he described the 20-year veteran's niche set of skills.
"It's fire, man. I love playing with Kyle," McCain said. "It's easy to play with him. He makes the game super easy, calls out exactly where you need to be, he'll hit you when you're open, elite communicator as well, someone I've looked up to, I've said, all the time. Anything he does – I love playing with him, and it was cool to see him out there on the court."
Andre Drummond not out of the woods
After Drummond's scary knee injury forced him into a wheelchair, the 32-year-old's MRI came back clean and, amazingly, he did not miss a single game. But it turns out Drummond is not quite back yet. He played the back half of the first quarter on Sunday after being upgraded from questionable to available, but those six minutes ended up being the extent of Drummond's action against the Hawks.
Drummond was on the bench cheering on his teammates for the remainder of the game and the Sixers did not provide any injury status on him, so it did not appear he had aggravated his knee. Perhaps Nurse just wanted to roll with Adem Bona, who had just come back from an ankle sprain and is playing well. But it never hurts to ask, and it turns out the answer is a bit more ominous.
"He was sore at halftime," Nurse said. "They ruled him out. His knee was sore from the other night, just didn't feel like he could go in the second half, so they ruled him out."
Maybe ominous is a bit of a strong word; Drummond was in his typical good spirits in the locker room after the game. Perhaps it became clear quickly that returning without a single absence was just a bit too ambitious. But for the first time since Bona's career began, the Sixers appear to have both the young player and the veteran going well at once.
The first made three-pointer of Adem Bona's NBA career: pic.twitter.com/82C3r6MTHi
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) November 29, 2025
If it holds, it will be especially beneficial on nights when Embiid sits. And for those keeping track of Bona's three-point shooting after the first made triple of his career shown above, the 22-year-old fired away another corner triple on Sunday night with plenty of confidence but misfired. He continues to do significant work as he aims to become a stretch five down the line.
MORE: Drummond's resurgence has been about much more than corner threes
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