November 02, 2026
Colleen Claggett/for PhillyVoice
VJ Edgecombe's sacrifice paid off in the form of plenty of scoring opportunities on Monday night.
PHILADELPHIA – Five minutes and change into the second half of Monday's game against the Chicago Bulls, the Sixers removed Jaylen Brown and Tyrese Maxey – fourth and fifth in the NBA in points per game last season – at the same time. Their ensuing five-man lineup: VJ Edgecombe, Anfernee Simons, Dean Wade, LeBron James and Joel Embiid.
That is the luxury of having a healthy team with five players capable of carrying the load on any given night. And through eight games, the Sixers have utilized each and every bit of talent at their disposal. Every core rotation player had a meaningful role in Monday's 126-107 victory.
A few sloppy stretches prevented the Sixers from completely blowing the young Bulls out, but they controlled just about all 48 minutes of action en route to arguably their easiest win so far. Yes, the Sixers will be better off for their plentiful crunch-time experience accumulated early in the year, but they need some lighter wins – maybe even lighter than this one was.
Takeaways from a nice and easy win:
As a rookie, Edgecombe played over 3,000 minutes between the regular season and playoffs, cementing himself as not just a franchise cornerstone in Philadelphia but as a far better on-ball player than anybody anticipated. Then came the Sixers' stunning offseason, and with the arrivals of Brown and James meant far fewer touches for a player the Sixers have every intention of developing with as much intensity as possible.
Edgecombe has responded to his lack of touches by mastering every little thing he possibly can. He is the Sixers' primary point-of-attack defender and has excelled in that role. He has been the Sixers' best transition defender. He is quite possibly the best rebounding guard in the NBA right now. He makes as many hustle plays as any member of the Sixers. He has made two of the biggest shots of the season so far. He has done it all with a smile on his face.
"I think he's been handling it great from a mental standpoint. He's been doing all the other things to help us win, and that's big and that's key," Brown said last week in Indianapolis. "So VJ has all my respect for that. As we continue to go throughout the season, he'll have his opportunities to show what he can do and what God has blessed him with. He’ll have a lot of opportunities in the future to get out and run, play a little bit with more pace, and as guys come in the lineup and exit the lineup, it'll create opportunity as well. So, just got to have the right mindset night in and night out and be ready to go."
Brown's words rang true immediately on Monday, with Edgecombe kickstarting the Sixers on offense with his speed in transition. He will walk run into many easy baskets on this team that embraces transition. Three such plays in the first quarter, combined with a spot-up three courtesy of a wise extra pass from Brown, gave Edgecombe 11 points in the opening frame.
a quick VJ Edgecombe compilation to make your night :) pic.twitter.com/Jjt7XvixLl
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) November 3, 2026
By halftime, Edgecombe did not just have a game-high 15 points, he had done it on perfect 7-for-7 shooting. In the second half, he added to his total with a perfect cut off of Joel Embiid for an and-one finish at the rim:
VJ IS HOOPING TODAY pic.twitter.com/qJmLyyeqIW
— 76ersMuse (@76ersMuse) November 3, 2026
Edgecombe fittingly put the icing on the cake of this win with a corner three, giving him his first 20-point game of the season. While the next year or two with a star-studded roster may delay his eventual ascent as a star ball-handler, nobody should doubt that a player with this sort of feel, unselfishness and competitiveness will eventually reach their absolute ceiling. That mental makeup paired with a high-level crash course on the art of being a role player will help Edgecombe round into form as one of the NBA's best guards later in his career.
this Sixers sequence 🔥 pic.twitter.com/NEa1cacxUG
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) November 3, 2026
In the open floor, James played an absolute masterclass of a game on Monday. His playmaking in transition was almost unbelievable, even for his lofty standards. He paved the way for Edgecombe to eat and created great chances for Maxey, too:
LeBron James drops a dime to Tyrese Maxey for the slam dunk 💪 pic.twitter.com/oYNKwcqR6K
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 3, 2026
James was also creating open threes time and time again in the half-court, even if his scoring juice was quite limited for a while when the game was slowed down. For the second game in a row in which James was available, the Sixers went out of their way to set as many screens as they could involving the NBA's all-time leading scorer.
James screening or being screened for creates natural mismatches, which he can decimate in the post. James has too much strength to be contained by smaller defenders, allowing him to either bully his way to the rim or draw a double-team and find the open man.
In the third quarter, James had a brief spurt of providing on-ball scoring – with the help of Embiid's low-post gravity – and it energized a crowd eager to see him shine. He also, it appeared, took a sip of a fan's drink after Maxey overshot him on a transition pass:
LeBron took a sip of a fan's drink mid game 😭 pic.twitter.com/1olB0GQ0ai
— NBA on Prime (@NBAonPrime) November 3, 2026
What has been clear all along: James will be tasked with making decisions on behalf of the Sixers first and foremost. What is changing: where on the floor he does it. Initially, it was a lot of reading the court from the middle. Now, James is finding a home on the block:
LEBRON AND 1 FADE AWAY pic.twitter.com/x0VipRZAUx
— 76ersMuse (@76ersMuse) November 3, 2026
"I think we need it," Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said late last week. "I think that our play out of the low post has been excellent. It's either been a bucket or a cut for a layup for somebody else or a kick-out three... I know the low-post game is a little bit infrequently used these days, but I think for us with guys spacing and cutting and stuff, it's been pretty good to us."
Some additional notes:
• Adem Bona was the Sixers' backup center on Monday and Jabari Walker was not in the rotation. Bona had yet another rough night, and at this point it is difficult to make a compelling case for Bona to be playing over Walker. Bona's shot-blocking and rim protection can alter a game, but all season long his poor decision-making and unforced errors have hurt the Sixers. Walker is much smaller, but a better rebounder and far more reliable player in just about every respect.
Bona's minutes got worse and worse as the night went on, and eventually the Sixers went to Wade as a small-ball center. That included the Sixers' closing effort to put the game away; perhaps in part due to the plantar fasciitis he is dealing with, Embiid played about 25 minutes in this one and only played the first eight minutes or so of the second half.
The Sixers will take these minutes totals in a win: pic.twitter.com/Y6awn7QNHA
— Adam Aaronson (@SixersAdam) November 3, 2026
• For the first time all season, Nurse was quite rigid in how he staggered his stars on Monday. Maxey and Brown played together; James, Edgecombe and Embiid played together, and Bona, Wade, Simons and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope were mixed in with both groupings.
• Prepare for a full season of Wade passing up open threes and the Sixers imploring him to fire away. It already has happened on multiple occasions this season, and perhaps Wade's clutch performance on Saturday emboldened him to shoot with a quicker trigger. Wade had two catch-and-shoot corner threes courtesy of James drive-and-kicks and cashed them both in with confidence.
Up next: The Sixers will now hit the road for their first three-game trip of the year, beginning on Wednesday in Detroit when they hope to avenge last weekend's loss to the Pistons.
