The night after a collection of the team's depth pieces tried and failed to knock off one of the NBA's elite teams, the Sixers returned to action for a nationally-televised matchup with the New York Knicks on Wednesday night. While Tyrese Maxey and Paul George returned to action for the Sixers, Joel Embiid remained sidelined, his sixth consecutive absence due to a left foot sprain which the team continues to describe as a day-to-day injury.

Caleb Martin remained sidelined as well -- his third straight missed game as he deals with a groin issue -- but the Knicks, who have enjoyed stunningly consistent health all season, were without All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns, who has been dealing with a thumb issue.

Sixers head coach opted to start Eric Gordon alongside Maxey, George, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Guerschon Yabusele, with a bench rotation made up of two-way players Jeff Dowtin Jr. and Justin Edwards, rookie Adem Bona and Ricky Council IV. Veteran point guard Reggie Jackson, who struggled as a starter on Tuesday, was out of the mix following his rough night.

The Sixers played a substandard first half, allowing New York to establish a 13-point lead by halftime. But with a terrific third quarter led by the resurgent Maxey and George, the Sixers erased the entire deficit in the third quarter to send the game to its final dozen minutes knotted up at 83.

The Sixers and Knicks went back and forth for much of the fourth quarter, but it was New York which spent much of the final frame in the driver's seat, largely thanks to timely plays from superstar point guard Jalen Brunson. Bursts from Maxey and Edwards brought the Sixers back, though and the team found new life when Maxey made a terrific, instinctual play to poke the ball away from Brunson from behind. George dove on the ball and called timeout, and suddenly the Sixers had a chance to tie or win the game with 7.1 seconds left. 

Maxey knotted things up at 109, driving to the rim and drawing a goaltending violation. Edwards came up with a clutch one-on-one stop against OG Anunoby, and suddenly another five minutes of basketball were in order.

While the Sixers put some encouraging things on film -- particularly during a very good second half -- they did not have quite enough firepower to beat a very good New York team. Brunson and co. took complete control in overtime and put the Sixers to bed.

Three overarching decisions and themes stood out during the Sixers' 125-119 loss on Wednesday night. Let's discuss:

Nurse makes a bold call against Brunson

It is impossible to forget what Brunson did to the Sixers in the first round of last year's playoffs. After two inefficient games in Knicks wins, Brunson went on an absurd tear in the remaining four games of the series. He averaged 41.8 points per game in those four contests, took 120 total shots and had his way against every look the Sixers threw at him. One of Nurse's calling cards as a head coach has always been his ability to be creative, but Brunson torched every individual defender and team coverage he saw for much of that series.

The defender who had the most success against Brunson in that series -- the one who led the way as the Sixers held the superstar point guard to a combined 16-for-55 shooting line in those first two games -- was Kelly Oubre Jr., whose length and size gave Brunson some fits but also had the requisite speed and athleticism to keep up. Oubre and Martin have been Nurse's primary options against star perimeter players all season, and with Martin sidelined, opening the game with Oubre defending Brunson seemed like the most obvious call Nurse could make.

Instead, it was Maxey who defended his counterpart at the point guard position, with Oubre defending Mikal Bridges on the wing. Maxey's defensive growth this season has been far and away the most encouraging aspect of his fifth NBA campaign, but it has largely been the product of terrific off-ball instincts rather than one-on-one defending. Maxey is an opportunist, not a stopper, and he was a particularly unusual choice to defend an opposing star when considering not just Brunson's knack for drawing fouls, but also his ability to use incredible body strength to bully guards with similar frames.

It only took 14 seconds for Brunson to bait Maxey into a swipe, which led to Maxey's first personal foul. Two minutes later, Maxey found himself defending the bigger Bridges on the block and was whistled for another foul. Maxey expressed the same sort of anger he has often had for officiating crews this season, and in hopes of saving Maxey from being in foul trouble, Nurse decided to challenge a foul call which was not going to enable any free throws for New York. Nurse lost the challenge.

The Sixers' defensive struggles from the outset were layered, though -- and they continued when Nurse gave the Brunson assignment back to Oubre in the second quarter. Beyond Maxey having to play a conservative brand of defense which is entirely antithetical to the mindset which enabled his significant leap on that end of the floor, the Sixers had breakdown after breakdown, whether it was caused by poor execution and focus or lack of communication. The Knicks scored 60 points before intermission, and it felt like that number undersold the Sixers' defensive struggles.

Revisiting the departure of Cam Payne

When Payne, who gave the Sixers a legitimate boost with his offensive creation and overall spirit in his few months with the team last season, knocked down back-to-back early threes and started engaging in very Cam Payne-like celebrations, it was hard not to think about the value he would have on these Sixers, who have gone from failed experiment to failed experiment at backup point guard all season.

Payne only signed with New York for the veteran's minimum -- the same terms the Sixers agreed to with Jackson and Kyle Lowry -- but on a Knicks team with a weak bench, he had the opportunity to play on a nightly basis that the Sixers could not offer him once they had convinced Lowry to return for a season in which he will turn 39 years old.

There were plenty of folks who wondered during the summer whether the Sixers had made a mistake by prioritizing retaining the services of Lowry over Payne, who is much younger and more reliable from an availability perspective. For the sake of transparency, even as one of the most enthusiastic supporters of Payne, I believed keeping Lowry in the fold was the right call.

But Lowry no longer looks like a viable rotation piece, as his diminished explosion has rendered the floor general a non-threat to score against most defenses. Lowry, who on Tuesday missed his sixth consecutive game due to issues with a right hip which also cost him a five-game absence in November, cannot be someone the Sixers are reliant on if they want to make any sort of noise in the playoffs.

Could Payne be a reliable contributor? He is not a dominant offensive player and is often a weak link defensively, but his consistent aggression as a shot creator -- both for himself and others -- is a huge asset on a team which, because of the constant injuries to its stars, has often been starved for offensive juice.

And as Payne went through handshakes and dances with his New York teammates and showed more emotion than any player on either team during the Knicks' biggest highlights, it was easy to wonder how valuable his energy would be for a Sixers team which has spent much of its season in the dumps.

After helping swing Game 3 of that Sixers-Knicks playoff series last season in the Sixers' direction, Payne gave an impassioned response when asked about why he carries himself with such a unique demeanor.

"We as humans, we feed off energy, we feed off confidence," Payne said. "Sometimes for a lot of bench guys, that's our job: to keep giving guys confidence, keep showing love to the guys that are out there playing. Because you never know when you might be out there and want that energy back. It brings confidence to the team, it makes everybody pick it up... I like having fun. It's still a child's game."

George and Maxey finally carry out the offseason vision 

Surprisingly, the Sixers dominated New York on both ends of the floor in the third quarter after their uninspiring performance during the first half. They outscored the Knicks 38-25 to tie the game up entering the fourth quarter, with the highlight being this bank-shot buzzer-beater three from Dowtin:

The real story of the third quarter was that Maxey and George took turns toying with New York's vulnerable defense, combining for 24 points -- nearly more than the entire Knicks team -- with terrific, relentless efforts at all three levels, both in the half-court and transition.

It was, in a nutshell, the manifestation of the team's vision during the offseason of how it could thrive without Embiid. And on paper, Maxey and George are absolutely good enough to tag team and carry the bulk of the offensive burden for a competitive team on any given night. George, Maxey and the rest of the Sixers have plenty of work to do -- that much is abundantly clear -- and while the third quarter on Wednesday night offered a glimpse of what this was supposed to look like, it also was an anomaly.

Can it become the new norm, and can it last for more than a handful of minutes at a time? At this rate, the Sixers' season depends on it.

Up next: The Sixers will have two days off before logging another back-to-back this weekend, traveling to the face the red-hot Indiana Pacers before battling the Milwaukee Bucks for the first time since the opening game of the season.

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