The Sixers’ season started like way too many have in the past, with an injury to a big man. Five minutes into their first preseason game of 2026-27, Ariel Hukporti went down with a non-contact leg injury, putting both backup centers on this roster on the shelf with at least 85 games left on the schedule.
As the team waits on the results of imaging to be done Tuesday, bracing for the worst, they are reminded of just how precarious their center situation is for the aspirations this group has.
For one
night, Jaylen Brown put on a show to make everyone forget about that. In his first game as a Sixer, Brown scored 22 points in just under 17 minutes of action. He shot 8-of-13 from the field and 3-of-5 from three-point range.
“He’s got a lot of areas he can score at,” head coach Nick Nurse said after the game. “We’ll move him around to places he can score from, we’re gonna need to.”
Brown obviously played in front of fans in the Blue X White Scrimmage over the weekend, but it felt good for him to get out there and play against a different team.
“We’ve been beating each other up in training camp and practice,” Brown said after the game, “it feels good to get out and play against somebody else.”
While Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and LeBron James sat out the preseason opener, Brown got plenty of reps in with the final member of the starting five, VJ Edgecombe. Nurse didn’t want to commit to Edgecombe and Brown being a unit he uses to stagger his stars, but Brown has taken to Edgecombe quickly on and off the court.
“I love VJ already. He’s one of my favorite people in the world and we just met,” said Brown. “I think we kind of see the game similarly. We try to get to the spots that we want to get to and we have some similar viewpoints, so when we’re talking to each other, we’re on the same page.”
No one is doing victory laps for the first preseason game of the year, least of all Brown. When asked how he’s carried over his success from last season, he dryly answered, “luck, I guess.”
“It’s a preseason game, we hit some shots, but it’s a long season,” he said. “So you got to definitely continue to get better, figure some stuff. I’m looking forward to that journey, there’s going to be ups, there’s going to be downs — I just got to be ready for anything.”
The Sixers have a very long road ahead of them, but they have just been dealt their first down of the season — and it could be a big one.
But Brown’s night was a reminder of how special he can be.
