2025-26 Sixers Bell Ringer season standings:
Tyrese Maxey – 22.5
VJ Edgecombe – 15
Joel Embiid – 11.5
Paul George – 8
Kelly Oubre Jr. – 5
Justin Edwards – 4
Andre Drummond – 3
Quentin Grimes – 3
Jared McCain :’( – 3
Dominick Barlow – 2
MarJon Beauchamp – 2
Adem Bona – 1
Cam Payne – 1
Jabari Walker – 1
Trendon Watford – 1
15th roster spot – 1
The Philadelphia 76ers were demolished 123-91 by the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series Sunday afternoon. It was bad. Very bad.
The Sixers
are embarking on this series without Joel Embiid, who is still recovering from an emergency appendectomy less than two weeks ago. And boy, could they use him right now. (No, I’m not saying he should be playing. I’m just saying his absence is a very palpable loss on days like today, obviously.)
This one was pretty ugly start to finish for Philly. It is amazing to watch one team be outplayed by another in truly every single facet, on every single level in a game. These two teams are just playing different sports. The Celtics have an incredibly deep, talented roster with real strategy on the court. The Sixers look like they’re playing a pick-up game, with no rhyme or reason other than just desperately clawing at any chance to get a few points.
However it was expected to go, it actually went worse.
Game 2 is on Tuesday night.
Let’s get to the Bell Ringer. Term used lightly here.
Tyrese Maxey: 21 points, 1 rebound, 8 assists
Tyrese Maxey commanded the offense for Philadelphia on Sunday in more ways than one, scoring a team-high 21 points and adding a team-high eight assists.
The problem was that the Sixers just were completely outplayed as a team. There was nothing Maxey could do individually about it to change that, especially with the Celtics prepared to pay extra defensive attention to him. There seemed to be no urgency from Nick Nurse either to start calling for more screens to help Maxey get any space with the ball. It just felt like there was little he could do given the circumstances and he produced what he could.
Of course, Maxey didn’t shoot very well like the entire team. Again, partially likely due to having anywhere from one to three Celtics in his face when trying to score. The pathetic thing is that, at 40% from the floor (8-for-20) and 25% from three-point range (25%), Maxey was actually one of the Sixers more accurate shooters on Sunday.
He was far from perfect, don’t get me wrong — he needed to get more shots to fall and had three turnovers himself. I’m just adding context that I think is relevant.
Maxey finished the game with 21 points, 1 rebound and eight assists.
VJ Edgecombe: 13 points, 3 rebound, 3 assists, 2 steals
The biggest (only?) bright side to the Sixers making it to this first-round series against the Celtics is at least we are getting to give VJ Edgecombe his first NBA playoff reps in his rookie season. That’s a plus.
One of the first things I noticed about Edgecombe in this one was that he did not seem phased by the context of the game at all. First NBA playoff experience in his life, starting for a team that is coming into this series as a massive underdog to the Celtics, in Boston. It looked like just another game for Edgecombe, with the rookie playing aggressively and fearlessly as he has all year for Philadelphia.
He struggled along with his team, don’t get me wrong. It was an inefficient game for him as it was everyone else in a Sixers uniform, with the rookie shooting 6-for-16 field goals and 0-for-5 from long range. You obviously want him hitting more shots than that from the floor, but the Sixers were grasping at straws for really any opportunity to shoot, so there wasn’t exactly the most excellent spacing and shot selection available.
Seeing Edgecombe hit a big euro-step into a floater over Jayson Tatum is the kind of thing I hope Edgecombe is able to take from this series. These are just two teams on completely different levels of basketball overall, so there might not be as much success as he’d like, but there’s still a lot the rookie can develop and learn from with this experience nonetheless.
Edgecombe finished with 13 points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Porter Martone: 1 game-winning goal in Game 1
Nineteen-year-old Porter Martone has been in Philadelphia for less than a month, but he’s already responsible for one of the biggest, realest moments of sports-induced joy the city has experienced as of late.
The Philadelphia Flyers took Game 1 of the first-round playoff series against the Pittsburgh Penguins on the road Saturday night when Martone scored the eventual game-winning goal. It was Martone’s first ever NHL playoff game.
Martone is already no stranger to stepping up in the clutch. His first NHL goal came back on April 5 in the regular season, when he netted an overtime winner to lift the Flyers 2-1 over the Boston Bruins.
Between having to watch this Sixers-Celtics mauling and a brilliantly-bad Phillies team, a team like the Flyers having exciting young talent stepping up in a big moment is just enough to keep us all from going completely insane right now. Flyers lead the Penguins 1-0 in the best-of-seven series. Next game, also in Pittsburgh, is Monday at 7 p.m. ET.
