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Tim Bontemps
PHILADELPHIA — Not only did the 76ers find their way to a dramatic 128-122 victory in overtime over the Houston Rockets here at Xfinity Mobile Arena Thursday night, but on the two-year anniversary of Joel Embiid scoring 70 points here against the San Antonio Spurs, the superstar center put up a 32-point triple-double.
And, more importantly, he played 46 minutes — the most he’d played in any regular-season game in more than three years.
«It’s certainly a pretty big step forward, I think, for sure,» 76ers coach Nick Nurse said afterwards.
In perhaps the most obvious sign Embiid is feeling more like his old self these days, he cracked jokes about the milestone.
«I was just saying after the game,» Embiid said with a grin, «that maybe I should have a baby on January 22nd. It seems to be a good day.
«So, me and my wife when I get home, we’re probably gonna talk about [that], start making those calculations and make sure that we are trying to have a baby on January 22nd.»
For the 76ers, though, all that matters is that a little more than halfway through this 2025-26 season, their star center is beginning to round back into the form that made him into the NBA’s Most Valuable Player in 2023, and consistently one of its dominant scorers for most of the past decade before knee injuries limited him to just 19 ineffective games last season.
He certainly looked the part in this one, finishing with those 32 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists — both season-highs — while shooting 10-for-19 from the floor and 11-for-12 from the free throw line.
While Embiid’s 3-point shot is still uncharacteristically off, as he’s shooting a career-low 26.3% from beyond the arc, his shooting numbers everywhere else — 54% on 2-point shots, 86% on foul shots — are right in line with his prior numbers, and as time has gone by he’s begun to show more mobility defensively.
«Him dunking, blocking shots, going for rebounds and that takes a lot on him,» Paul George said, when asked when he started to see Embiid get back to himself again this season. «And so, he’s starting to feel it, he’s getting better and that competitive juice and everything is starting to flow. You see it even with him at practice and so you can see he was coming back, he was starting to form back into the Joel Embiid that we all have seen him dominate in this league.
«So it’s definitely refreshing just from a personal level, dealing with injuries and how that takes a toll on you. It’s just always great to see someone start to get back to themselves.»
The 76ers (24-19) needed all of that from Embiid, plus the latest stellar showing from newly minted All-Star starter Tyrese Maxey (36 points and 10 assists), to hold off the Rockets (26-16) in this one, as Kevin Durant finished with 36 points himself and Houston was bailed out by the referees missing a clear goaltend on a Maxey layup with just over a second remaining in regulation.
But Philadelphia went on to score the opening five points of overtime and never trailed in the extra session, allowing the 76ers to recover and avoid dropping to 1-4 in their last five games — all here in South Philadelphia.
«I think we were just resilient tonight,» Maxey said. «Had to fight through some adversity … we stay with it.»
As a result, the 76ers have kept themselves inside the top 6 spots in the Eastern Conference standings and are only 1½ games behind their opponent here Saturday, the New York Knicks. It’s a far cry from where things were last year, when Embiid was on the verge of being shut down for the season, George was in the middle of an injury-riddled campaign himself and the 76ers were hoping for lottery luck to retain their top-6 protected draft pick that ultimately became star rookie VJ Edgecombe with the third overall selection.
«Yeah,» George said, when asked if this is what he had envisioned when he signed with Philadelphia as a free agent 18 months ago. «And not to discredit any team that beat us, but if you look at the losses, a lot of those were very winnable games that we could very well be top two, top three in the East. But yeah, night and day in terms of where the vision we had for last year was kind of, this is what we saw. Being a team that could be a force and compete. At the end of the day just compete, and when the chips fall, anything could happen. So, I think that’s what we’re designed to be. We just got to keep chipping away.»
That begins with keeping Embiid upright and healthy — particularly in a truly wide-open Eastern Conference.
«I’m just glad to be consistent,» Embiid said. «Obviously I’m not allowed to play back-to-backs yet, so just whenever I can play, just happy to be consistent and playing every game, basically.»
