Instant observations: Sixers escape with a late win, but Paul George’s suspension looms large

PHILADELPHIA – Saturday was supposed to be about nostalgia, as the 2001 Sixers punctuated their 25th anniversary with a reunion as the 2025-26 Sixers hosted the New Orleans Pelicans. Instead, the day was dominated by the news of Paul George's 25-game suspension and the ensuing fallout.

On a day that should have been about celebration but instead revolved around a nightmarish scenario for George and his team, the Sixers handled their business against the New Orleans Pelicans, 124-114, notching their third straight home victory to end the month of January.

Joel Embiid led the way all along for the Sixers, scoring 40 points in 39 minutes. The latter number is concerning; the Sixers' complete inability to put games away before the final minutes reared its ugly head again. But Embiid torched a young Pelicans center rotation that included prized rookie Derik Queen, who had publicly stated he was eager to face one of his favorite players. Sixers head coach Nick Nurse began tinkering with his rotations, with more questions than answers emerging from this one. A win is a win, though, and for the second game in a row the Sixers beat a team in a fashion that was probably not as emphatic as it could have been.

New Orleans took a brief lead midway through the fourth quarter, in part due to Tyrese Maxey's struggles, before Maxey, Embiid and VJ Edgecombe made some important plays to put the Sixers back ahead and eventually win the game in front of a raucous crowd.

It was an unusual day. Takeaways from the action:

Rotation changes in store

Nurse went with a 10-man rotation in this one: naturally, Dominick Barlow slid back into the starting lineup; Dominick Barlow and Kelly Oubre Jr. will be this team's starting forwards for the foreseeable future. Quentin Grimes returned from his two-game absence and reclaimed his role as the third guard, which kicked Jared McCain down a notch. McCain remained in the rotation, though, and took another step forward, giving the Sixers a strong offensive showing. McCain has been particularly excellent when playing off of Embiid. The Sixers pairing the two of them together as much as possible could help certifiably turn McCain's season around:

fourth triple of the night for @J_mccain_24 👌 pic.twitter.com/S7klpUMkvn

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) February 1, 2026

Nurse went with both Trendon Watford and Jabari Walker in his initial rotation. He has experimented this month with lineups featuring Watford and two other bigs, and he went back to that look on Saturday. It gives the Sixers great size, but the spacing is quite poor. Watford and Walker have both been better than Justin Edwards this season, but one of those players plus Edwards is a much better fit than Watford and Walker and a center, especially if it is not Embiid.

Another rotation wrinkle Nurse went to against New Orleans, which could become more common moving forward: playing Adem Bona and Embiid together. It gives them size and enables Bona to be an energetic rover, a free safety of sorts, while Embiid patrols the rim. It has worked in spurts, but the Sixers have not gone to it consistently enough to make it a true rotation staple.

Moving forward, look for Nurse to be more rigid in staggering Embiid's minutes with those of Tyrese Maxey. In an ideal world, George would be spearheading the effort to find lineups good enough without either player for the Sixers' dynamic duo to share the floor more often, but the Sixers' time living in an ideal world has come to an end.

Arguably the most important chess piece in all of this is Oubre, whose positional versatility and ability to scale up on offense will both be extremely valuable moving forward. Nurse declined a chance to put it all on Oubre pregame, but it is clear that no player's importance to the Sixers rises more in light of Saturday's news than the veteran swingman. And for what it's worth, Oubre turned in a solid two-way performance against his hometown team in this one.

Nick Nurse reacts to Paul George's suspension

Predictably, every single question posed to Nurse during his pregame media availability pertained to George, from his suspension and the fallout to his underwhelming Sixers tenure thus far to the key figures Nurse hopes will step up in the absence of the nine-time All-Star. A few of the most noteworthy quotes from Nurse:

• On his initial reaction to the news:

"Obviously, I'm disappointed, for sure… We've got to figure out who's going to replace some of the things he does, positionally and defensively and shots and all that kind of stuff, but I think there's a number of guys there to do it. That's where we are, and we've been in this 'next man up' mentality for quite a while and we're going to have to dig in and do it again."

• On his conversation with George after the news broke:

"I just spoke to him a little bit ago. I'm not going to share the personal conversation with you, but listen, he's still part of the team. He can't play the games. He's still allowed at the facility and to practice and all that stuff. We've got to make sure that those things continue to happen… I told him, as with all of our players dealing with this kind of stuff, you care about them. We're here to help them, the organization is, in any way possible, and [we'll] try to get past it as soon as we can to get through it the best way we can."

• On the rotation ramifications of George's absence:

"I think it puts a number of guys in play here. And that's at least some guys [where] we have some idea what they can do. I think we're still learning about some of them, but it puts Barlow, Walker, Watford, Edwards, McCain, Oubre, [Grimes]… And I think it's probably going to be like it always is: who are we playing? What do the matchups look like? Who's playing well at the time? What combinations look good together? And again, at least I think that all those guys I just mentioned have gotten decent amounts of minutes and we kind of know what they are or where they're headed or where we'd like them to be or what role they can fill."

• On George's Sixers tenure to date:

"Well, I think there's been a lot of circumstances that have been really unfortunate. But I also feel like he's played pretty well this year, borderline very well, considering he's played such a critical role for us and kind of slotted in as, like, a really good role player on this particular team. I think he's done what we needed him to do. But I think there's been a lot of unfortunate things. Injuries, obviously, the team's whole situation last year, obviously, couple injuries early this year. So it's been unfortunate, but that's where we are."

Odds and ends

Only one additional note:

• If you are interested in some more in-depth analysis of how the George suspension impacts the Sixers' rotation, cap sheet and trade deadline, the video below might interest you:

I have never been one to pivot to video, but I thought this would be an easier way to explain many of my initial reactions to today’s Paul George news.
Some thoughts on how the Sixers will replace George’s minutes, the luxury tax situation, possible moves to come & a bunch more: pic.twitter.com/Q4peFygqKt

— Adam Aaronson (@SixersAdam) January 31, 2026

Up next: The Sixers will now head across the country, as their next five games come on the road against Western Conference teams. Up first: the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night.

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