Joel Embiid and De'Anthony Melton scored a combined 71 points for the Sixers on Friday night, helping Philadelphia survive in a 133-122 overtime win. Philly squandered a nine-point lead in the final 35 seconds, but they saw it through in the end. 

Here's what I saw.

The Good

• De'Anthony Melton has been on quite a roller coaster lately, but he came roaring back in Friday night's game, playing the best two-way basketball of anyone on the roster not named Embiid. He was a menace in passing lanes, a catch-and-shoot dynamo, the two-way guy who tied everything together and made it all work for Philadelphia. In fact, I would argue it was Melton who ultimately got this game over the line for Philadelphia, No. 8 making some absolutely miraculous plays late to keep the Sixers from losing. 

His success as a catch-and-shoot guy was without question his most important contribution of the night. The Lakers evidently decided that they'd live with some clean-ish looks from Melton coming into this game, shading attention elsewhere and occasionally using his man to send pressure and doubles at other players. They would live to regret that choice — Melton turned a gaggle of open looks into his best scoring night of the season, and he didn't have to work especially hard to get 'em up. Melton wasn't flying off of screens, mostly just getting to a spot and waiting for the ball to swing his way, letting it go the moment it hit his hands. That has been hard to get guys to do around here! Melton hitting the game-clinching three on a beautiful Embiid pass out of a double felt like a fitting end to a big night.

Perhaps because he was feeling it or perhaps because he couldn't continue missing transition layups in perpetuity, Melton also came through with some nice finishes on the break, using turnovers (often turnovers he had created himself) to pick up easy buckets for Philly in transition. A reverse layup late in the fourth felt like an exclamation point, only for Melton to hit an even bigger shot when it mattered in the final minute.

I also just love the chaos he causes as a defender, slithering around the floor and catching players napping while they have their backs turned to him. Add on the damage he can do if your passes in his direction aren't inch-perfect, and there's so much to like here. The Lakers couldn't seem to figure out what to do with him all night, LeBron scratching his head in confusion at how Melton kept getting his hands on steals when he threw passes in his direction. 

When the rest of the team looked like they were ready to pack it in and let a late scare turn into a historic collapse, Melton just kept coming. He came up with a hellacious block of Russell Westbrook in transition early in the overtime period, and he kept scrambling for loose balls with the rest of the guys on the floor weary from a long evening. Mr. Do Something did just about everything, putting together what is clearly his best game since joining the Sixers. 

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• Anthony Davis has been less than willing to play full-time center throughout his career, so matchups between Joel Embiid and the Lakers big man have often missed the one-on-one element most people would like to see. Embiid has often guarded Davis while Davis matches up with a Philadelphia forward, but it was exciting to come into the game knowing they'd be on each other from the opening tip.

One of those guys was prepared for it, and it was the guy who had actively sought out that individual challenge in the past. Embiid went right to work using his strength advantage against Davis, putting him in some no-win situations around the rim. When Davis didn't want to foul him, it was an Embiid bucket. It was only a matter of time before he was forced to foul him twice in the opening four minutes, and a third foul came when Davis wrapped up PJ Tucker on a cut a few minutes later.

The Lakers at least had a chance to hang prior to Davis going out, but it was an absolute rampage for Embiid once he hit the bench. A variety of smaller players ended up switched on Embiid throughout the first quarter, and aside from Patrick Beverley drawing a charge, the rest of them were either shot over or left in the dust. RIP Thomas Bryant, while we're on the subject:

Notably, Embiid ran the floor hard when the Sixers were getting stops, and he was rewarded for the effort with a lot of drop-off passes from his teammates. He also bailed them out with some good catches on the break. Tobias Harris fired one at his chest from close range that he had no business hauling in before depositing a layup.)

Supporting his offensive explosion was Embiid's work on the defensive end. Philadelphia's gameplan was a departure from their scheme over the last month, with Embiid switching on just about every ball screen that was sent for LeBron James. This might have been problematic with a younger LeBron, but putting the big man in front of an older James mostly baited him into taking contested threes, and on the rare chance he drove at Embiid, the big man did an excellent job of staying in front of him and making life difficult.

A nice cherry on top: Embiid's assist count wasn't especially high, but I thought he passed the ball decisively and kept things flowing the way the hub of their offense must. On the game's critical play, it was an Embiid feed to Melton that ultimately wrapped it up:

I have been tough on Embiid lately, and he has certainly deserved some blame when the Sixers go through lethargic stretches and he's at the center of things. But it is undeniable that he is the only guy even making them relevant most of the time — he has the ability to wipe out bad possessions on either end of the floor, coming up with a miraculous make, beautiful footwork in traffic, or a layup-swallowing block in the painted area to send his team running the other way. He makes these plays enough that they eventually become just one play in a series of many throughout a game and a season, and maybe that makes us take him for granted occasionally.

He was up for this one from the moment the game started, though, and he should also see the transformative impact that has on the rest of the team. With Embiid playing inspired defense and going right at Davis to open the game, the rest of his teammates had no choice but to follow suit. 

• Matisse Thybulle's spot in the rotation has dwindled to the point of hardly existing at this point, but with PJ Tuker stinking up the joint on Friday, you weren't going to get a better time to turn him loose and see what he can do. And because the Lakers didn't appear to read the scouting report, he had a field day on cuts, crushing the Lakers with movement around the baseline.

News flash to Austin Reaves (who played well!), Anthony Davis and the rest of the gang — Thybulle can hurt you as a cutter moving toward the rim. Closing out hard on him in the corner is much better for the Sixers than allowing him to launch a barrage of open threes, and Thybulle did a great job of punishing the Lakers for how they played him. When Reaves played up on him soon after Thybulle checked in, Thybulle went right by him with a quick dribble move and flushed one.

And look, he deserves credit for even doing that because self-creation has been a struggle for him throughout his four years the same as shooting has. Once he got by Reaves, Thybulle just kept coming down the baseline, and the Sixers hooked him up with some beautiful feeds, with Harden hitting him on a lob and Embiid throwing a laser to him for his third dunk in just a couple of minutes.

When he does that stuff, it's easier for him to stay on the floor and transform the game on defense. If you can get two guys like Thybulle and Melton on the floor in relatively big roles, opposing teams constantly have to be on guard. And I thought Thybulle did a great job of impacting the game on defense without being over aggressive and fouling, using active hands and well-timed help to get Philly on the break.

He may not be an every-night, every-situation player, but they need to add some energy and athleticism to this group, and he is the most obvious option to do so.

• One great thing we've seen from Shake Milton as he's moved from a high-minute starter back to a bench role is that his decisionmaking has remained snappy. The worry when a guy has minutes taken away is that he starts looking over his shoulder and second-guessing himself. There has been none of that for Milton, who continues attacking the same spots with the same aggressiveness while playing with the second unit.

What they need from him above all else is a bit of steadiness and trustworthy production off of the bench on a team where second-unit performances have been all over the map this season. He's in, as Tobias Harris would say, a good flow at the moment.

The Bad

• Boy, did the Sixers really suck whenever Joel Embiid hit the bench against the Lakers. They tend not to be very good whenever he sits, and that has been the case for his entire career, but they took a game that looked to be trending toward a blowout and turned it into the exciting shootout we eventually got. Maybe it worked better from an entertainment perspective, but certainly not for the Sixers.

As much as I love Paul Reed, the situation to play him is not one where the other team is sitting in a 2-3 zone and daring you to bomb away from three. At the very least, you need someone you can stick in the middle of that zone and serve as a quick distributor when the defense collapses, and he is decidedly not that guy. The Sixers spent most of a four-minute stretch just passing the ball around the perimeter, and Reed was foul-happy against Davis on the other end, allowing the foul-plagued center to make at least some impact on the game in a limited run.

(Do you want to play Tucker more minutes in a small-ball lineup there, though? It's not the easiest call to make right now, but it's how I probably would have opted to attack it.)

Quibble with Rivers there and I won't stop you, but he was a partner in crime with James Harden at the least. The reason you go and get somebody like Harden to run the team from the perimeter is to, you know, lead the team and adapt to the circumstances as the game changes between minute one and minute 48. He was no more effective during that extended zone run for the Lakers than, I don't know, Furkan Korkmaz. This is supposed to be your lead decision-maker on the perimeter, the guy walking down games and making stuff happen, and he was a passenger or worse during that stretch.

I don't especially care if Harden has a cold night as long as the shots he's taking make some sense, or playing downhill basketball that generates looks for himself and others. His line ended up looking decent, but this was four quarters of junk ball, and it was especially ugly down the stretch, when he almost literally threw their lead away and cost Philly the win. Harden was so bad down the stretch that the Sixers put Shake Milton in the on-ball action with Embiid when they absolutely had to have a basket, and it was the right thing to do, Harden languishing in the corner while Embiid set De'Anthony Melton up to hit yet another three.

(I did like Harden letting some catch-and-shoot jumpers go throughout the night. He is almost famously reluctant to take those shots for a guy who will let pull-up shots fly all night, and it was good to see him get some up against the Lakers even if he struggled to get them to drop. At least we got a great highlight out of him on Friday, Harden hitting a crossover into a four-point play opportunity to the delight of the home crowd.)

• Look, I have said over and over and over that I don't think coaching is the catch-all reason for all of Philadelphia's problems. Their lead perimeter guy has been nowhere near the level he needs to hit, their franchise center has undermined great efforts with mopey quarters, their bench has swung wildly back and forth across the effectiveness spectrum, and their biggest off-season signing has been flat-out bad for a while. 

But I'm not sure how you can look at a team that squandered a nine-point lead with 35 seconds left and think everything is hunky dory with leadership. They were a rudderless ship, but worse than that, they were a rudderless ship that came out of timeouts arguably less prepared than they looked prior to going into the huddle. The Sixers still managed to make this game feel like a soul-crushing experience after they looked to be cruising to an easy win with about four-five minutes left in the fourth quarter. Since that came from a variety of guys and not just Harden, I'm okay if you want to just point at the guy in the lead coach's chair and say it was/is his fault.

Calling a timeout while up seven points with 28 seconds left was just, I don't know, overkill? The Sixers would have had a fairly easy time just throwing the ball in and picking up a quick foul, instead of inviting the chaos that eventually ensued. 

Ultimately, the Sixers will take a win regardless of how it happened and how much extra energy it took to get there, but it is just impossible to look at the body of work and think they can just rep their way toward respectability and serious contention. There isn't really a sensible or easy trade to make to shake things up unless you're going to completely rework the core. So if you still believe in your heart of hearts that you can do damage, you need to make the tough decisions sooner rather than later.

• I said too many nice things about Matisse Thybulle, who committed what must be his 300th straight foul in a clutch situation. 

The Ugly

• P.J. Tucker is really fighting it on offense right now. Before he took a three that barely hit the rim in the first quarter, Tucker turned down another good look from the corner, staring down the space L.A. had given him and opting to hold onto the ball instead. Corner threes have been his bread and butter on offense for most of his NBA life, and he was brought here in part because of his comfort in letting those go. Instead of catching and firing, Tucker often looks like he has no idea what to do when the ball hits his hands, and it brings the offense to a standstill.

They cannot afford for him to be this bad on offense. The Sixers can still win regular season games with him as a complete non-entity, but they are going nowhere fast if they have another player in a sizable role who teams will start ignoring on the perimeter. 

• I don't suspect it will matter on either end this season, but I would never fear Davis' team in a playoff series if I had Embiid on mine. 

• World B. Free got to dance to Parliament Funkadelic to celebrate his birthday between the first and second quarters. Not too shabby.

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