One trade, three signings, dozens of instances of fan hysteria… and one brutal loss.
Thursday was an interesting day for the Sixers, who dumped the salary of Eric Gordon one day after trading Jared McCain, then failed to acquire a single player at the trade deadline for the first time in Sixers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey's tenure with the organization. They signed two 10-day contracts as they were trying to fill out a makeshift roster in case they could not secure a new standard contract for Dominick Barlow, and then at the buzzer locked in Barlow with a deal that covers the remainder of this season and a team option for 2026-27.
The Sixers capped off a long day by collapsing in a 119-115 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, ending their five-game winning streak. The Sixers jumped out to an early lead and were comfortably better than the Lakers for most of the game. But in the final 15 minutes or so, the Sixers completely cratered, and even with Luka Dončić sidelined due to an apparent leg injury, LeBron James and a returning, red-hot Austin Reaves led the Lakers back and then put them in front. The Sixers led by nine points inside of the three-minute mark of the third quarter; they blinked and were down by 10 points with five minutes and change left in the game.
While the Sixers got a marvelous all-around performance from Embiid for much of the game, and Tyrese Maxey's playmaking was largely very good, Maxey and the rest of the Sixers fell into a three-point shooting drought. After a first half in which the Sixers took care of the ball and the Lakers turned it over repeatedly, the opposite occurred in the second half. It allowed the Lakers to finally get hot offensively and storm ahead early in the fourth quarter. The Sixers staged a last-ditch effort, but it was not enough to get out of the hole they had already dug themselves into.
Takeaways from Thursday's action:
A shallow collection of depth pieces comes into focus
Not only did the Sixers fail to replace McCain with a viable fourth guard – there is now a whole lot on the plates of Maxey, VJ Edgecombe and Quentin Grimes – but they did not bolster their rotation at all. McCain had been the last piece of head coach Nick Nurse's regular mix, and lately his three-point shooting had taken off to give the Sixers quite a nice offensive jolt.
Now, that spot belongs to Justin Edwards, who after a stellar rookie season which earned him a promotion from two-way contact to standard deal has really stagnated as a sophomore. Edwards has had a few strong moments, one signature performance, and many instances of being too timid on offense or too jumpy on defense. Nurse remains an ardent supporter of the 21-year-old, whose willingness to compete defensively and play team-oriented basketball appeals to his coach. But, at least until Jabari Walker gets a standard contract, Edwards is by default the Sixers' ninth man.
It is very hard to get by with an eight-man rotation – though Nurse may be one coach willing to tempt fate – and so Edwards likely has minutes coming his way moving forward. He did in the first half on Thursday, and they did not go well. Edwards was immediately whistled for fouls over and over, and in the second half Nurse opted against returning to Edwards and tried playing Adem Bona next to Embiid and Trendon Watford, which failed very quickly.
Speaking of Watford, despite being 6-foot-8 he is more or less the Sixers' third-string point guard. Generally speaking, in today's day and age people believe "you are who you guard" in terms of positional status, but Nurse has referred to Watford as the point guard of lineups on multiple occasions this season. Watford's ability to create at his size is clear and unique, but of late the quality of his minutes has improved dramatically because he is finding something as a scorer. Watford will often be defended by weak links, and if he can continue to punish them by connecting on push shots and floaters in the lane, he will continue to be someone the Sixers ask for a lot from.
A cruel twist to end a day in which the Sixers failed to land a rotation upgrade: just one more quality piece might have prevented their collapse in the final 15 minutes or so of this game. There is, of course, no way to know this definitively. But given the Sixers' tendency to play close games, this might not be the final time between February and April that the Sixers wish they had one more player Nurse could trust.
Joel Embiid's entire offensive impact rounding into shape
Before the season began, optimists argued that if Embiid could just be a decoy offensively and focus on setting up his teammates as a facilitator, the Sixers would still be successful offensively and Embiid would conserve energy in the process. In reality, that was never going to work if Embiid was not going to return to his dominant form as a one-on-one scorer. Teams watch the games, and if Embiid was not a serious threat to punish them they would no longer devote the resources to guarding him, which would enable him to be a decoy.
Early in the season, Embiid struggled as a scorer. Teams noticed and limited his ability to make life easier for his teammates. As Maxey began playing like a superstar, the attention shifted away from the issue. But as Embiid has grown back into an unstoppable scoring force over the last five weeks, he has also been able to resume high-level facilitation. Not only does Embiid lean on the brilliant two-man rapport he has developed with Maxey, but he is developing a similar dynamic with Edgecombe (and was doing the same with McCain). Kelly Oubre Jr. is a terrific cutter off of Embiid; those two have a solid understanding of when Oubre can cut off of Embiid touches in the post.
Another partnership that has really blossomed and was on full display on Thursday: Barlow is a great cutter with excellent spatial awareness who Embiid is clearly comfortable connecting with on high-low plays. Barlow picks the perfect lanes and times to make himself available to Embiid, whose willingness to execute drop-off passes has grown exponentially.
After Embiid scored 40 points in a game last week, Maxey raved about the level of trust the former NBA MVP has in his teammates right now. And it is on full display night in and night out, with Thursday's game serving as another emphatic example. He set the tone with an early barrage of buckets, flowed into some nifty assists and then continued to score at will. The Lakers, albeit a weak interior defensive team, were totally at his mercy.
The extent to which the Sixers are better offensively because of Embiid's scoring dominance resurfacing cannot be understated, and it extends far beyond the points he scores. Teams know Embiid cannot be contained with single-coverage, and it makes life easier for every single one of his teammates.
Odds and ends
Some additional notes:
• For the first time all season, the Sixers had two-way swingman MarJon Beauchamp active on Thursday – and for the first time all season, two-way forward Walker was inactive. The 23-year-old had been the only member of the team to be available in every game.
• After not dressing for any of the six games covered by his first 10-day contract with the Sixers, Charles Bassey signed another 10-day deal on Thursday and was active against the Lakers. Patrick Baldwin Jr., who also signed a 10-day contract on Thursday, was not active.
• For the second time in four games, Grimes threw down a vicious poster dunk in Los Angeles:
DOTTTTTTT 😱 pic.twitter.com/dL0xcxXNi9
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) February 6, 2026
Up next: The Sixers' five-game road trip will continue on Saturday night when they face the Phoenix Suns.
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