Instant observations: Joel Embiid shoots 4-for-21 in Sixers’ loss to LeBron James, Luka Dončić and the Lakers

PHILADELPHIA – Whenever LeBron James, Luka Dončić or the Los Angeles Lakers make their yearly visit to a road NBA city, an arena turns into a madhouse for a night. On Sunday night, all three came at once.

The Sixers played host to James, Dončić and the Lakers on Sunday night, with shockingly clean injury reports on both sides. The Lakers' two megastars were uncertain for this game initially, but both suited up, while Joel Embiid and Paul George went from questionable on Saturday evening to probable on Sunday morning to available at tip-off. The only absences were Kelly Oubre Jr., Trendon Watford and Marcus Smart. Suddenly, a loud and divided sell-out crowd was able to witness a whole lot of starpower.

After a decent first half that kept the Sixers ahead despite a horrid shooting performance from Embiid, the Sixers cratered in the third quarter – yes, again – and failed to make up the difference in the final frame. Tyrese Maxey was very good, but nobody else on the Sixers played particularly well for their standards; in fact, most of Maxey's teammates struggled relative to what one would expect – and nobody more than Embiid. James had a vintage run of scoring down the stretch, and for the Sixers it all coalesced into a 112-108 loss, their 10th defeat of the season.

Takeaways from a box-office matchup in Philadelphia on Sunday:

Sixers' issues in third quarters resurface

After a game last month, the Sixers had the following phrase written on a whiteboard in the corner of their locker room: "30th in 3rd Q." After the game, someone took a red marker and wrote over the top of that statistic with one word: "STILL."

A few weeks later, the Sixers are not still last in the NBA in Net Rating in third quarters – they entered Sunday ranked 29th, only ahead of the New Orleans Pelicans. But they did not do themselves in favors with their performance out of halftime against the Lakers, who turned a seven-point deficit into a three-point lead. While the Sixers were outscored by 10 points in the third quarter, it felt a whole lot worse than that. Late threes from Maxey and VJ Edgecombe made it look far more respectable, but the Sixers' total disorganization on offense came back to bite them as Los Angeles found an offensive groove behind Dončić.

Coming off a stellar showing in Milwaukee in which he led the Sixers across the finish line in the fourth quarter, George was largely invisible on Sunday. During the third quarter in particular, his inability to give the Sixers any sort of offensive lift demonstrated just how reliant the group can be on Maxey's brilliance. Maxey can oftentimes carry that load, but it is unreasonable to ask him to do so every night. The Sixers needed more offensive juice behind Maxey in this one. Instead, Embiid had a brutal showing, George was silent for much of the game and the remainder of the offensive spark was limited to one brief Jared McCain run in the second quarter.

Joel Embiid has a brutal night

Absolutely nothing went right for Embiid on Sunday. In many areas – defense, rebounding and advantage creation, for example – his performance was lackluster. Whenever Embiid did good enough work to create the sorts of shots he has been casually draining for many years, he was either off the mark or the victim of a bad bounce. Embiid shot just 2-for-11 in 17 minutes during a nightmarish first half; his two makes were a layup assisted by Maxey and a tip-in.

As Embiid's shooting struggles escalated, he only grew more antsy to break out of them. The result: some ill-advised shot attempts that disrupted the Sixers' offensive flow. Embiid pressing only created more problems for him; he missed all three shots he took in a short burst to open the second half and then became hesitant. He was clearly frustrated with himself as he checked out of the game. Embiid returned for the fourth quarter and finally made a jumper, only to immediately allow two easy Lakers baskets. Embiid surprisingly returned for the final three minutes and change, and he did knock down a clutch jumper to tie the game before James decided he was going to put the game away for Los Angeles.

Embiid finished the game with a 4-for-21 shooting line in 30 minutes. The Sixers won his minutes by a team-best 13 points; in many cases such a discrepancy has signaled Embiid's underlying impact on winning but on Sunday it felt much more misleading than anything else.

What can make Embiid's offensive issues so devastating in a game like this is that he offers no defensive resistance or rebounding presence. Embiid has largely been a very good offensive player this season – perhaps even great – and it is still unclear whether or not he helps the Sixers in the aggregate right now because he is such a liability both on defense and on the glass. Against a team with three high-powered perimeter scorers, someone as immobile as Embiid is very hard to hide on the back line.

The Sixers continue to find themselves in a difficult position: they want to continue to establish that they are no longer reliant on Embiid to win and are focused on short-term winning. But they know that any world in which they return to championship contention includes an Embiid revival, and they know that such an event – as unlikely as it feels regardless – is impossible without the former NBA MVP actually playing in games. They have competing objectives.

Odds and ends

Some additional notes:

• Dominick Barlow, who like Jabari Walker has netted the Sixers tremendous returns on a two-way contract this season, opened Sunday's game guarding James and spent much of it as the 40-year-old's primary defender. But he switched onto Dončić on more than a few occasions and provided extremely impressive one-on-one defense. Barlow continues to stand out in any role the Sixers ask him to fill

• Maxey has quite possibly never lost his cool on the court more than this moment late in the first quarter, when he did not get a foul call and was subsequently blocked at the rim. Maxey had to be held back by nearly the entire Sixers bench and got a technical foul for his troubles:

Tyrese Maxey had to be held back from the official 😳 pic.twitter.com/EEViFF5Dxb

— NBA Courtside (@NBA__Courtside) December 8, 2025

Up next: Because they are not participating in the NBA Cup Knockout Rounds, the Sixers will have a staggering four days off before returning to action at home against the Indiana Pacers on Friday.

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