Dec 7, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward Lebron James (23) controls the ball against Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey during the first quarter at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
After his streak of games with at least 10 points came to an end earlier in the week, LeBron James reminded the world of what he's still capable of on the Xfinity Mobile Arena stage.
Here are six thoughts on the Sixers' loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in an absolute thriller.
Philadelphia got out to a hot start and threatened to put some early pressure on the Lakers to keep it competitive. But the early advantage was erased by the end of the first quarter because Luka Doncic preyed on the Sixers' help rotations to the restricted area.
Philadelphia kept pinching from the weak side, leaving the corner opposite the ball open for Doncic to target out of drives with his right hand. You'll take every advantage you can get against Doncic, and forcing him to his off hand matters just as much as any other detail does. He got to his right hand off the dribble often in the first, forcing the Sixers to bring over help as he put downhill pressure on the rim. When the help came, the Lakers got great looks at corner threes. Rui Hachimura was a major beneficiary of that.
The other igniter in that first quarter was allowing James to get out and run in transition unabated. He's too strong, big, fast and smart to stop all the time. But you can't just lose him completely and you can't let him get behind you. James got a handful of transition scores in the first quarter to not only aid Los Angeles in getting back into the game but also to warm himself up for what came later in the game.
It would be burying the lede to not address Joel Embiid's horrendous night of shooting. Aside from leaving games early due to injuries, few nights at the office have ever played out worse for him. He could not buy one.
Having said that, there was a reason he was a team-high plus-10 late into the fourth quarter. Embiid used his body to get his teammates open, making real contact on screens to manufacture separation for the recipient.
His name still warrants a high degree of respect and the Lakers pinched hard when he caught the ball out of the post and out of the face-up. Embiid made some outstanding passes when the doubles came, finding the open man to slash or line up a triple.
His creativity as a passer out of ball screens doesn't just present for Maxey anymore. His chemistry with Jared McCain is growing. One of Embiid's best passes of the game came when McCain rejected a ball screen after seeing the Lakers over-play on Embiid. He flared out to the wing to retrieve a pass Embiid floated in front of him and nailed a three.
Still the passing and improved defense could not overcome a 4-for-21 shooting night for the big fella. It stands nearly front and center when you lose the game by four points.
An off night is inevitable. It is human. It is part of the game. What can't happen is Embiid then second-guessing himself as soon as he gets re-inserted for crunch time.
He laced an elbow jumper to tie the game late, and then looked rather robotic in his approach. With the Sixers down three in the final minute, he bodied Austin Reaves down to the paint with the specific intent of getting a turnaround jumper. It became clear that he was singularly focused on getting to that shot because he missed Paul George for a wide-open three in the weak-side corner.
A passive Embiid is almost never a good Embiid. An unsure, robotic Embiid is always a very bad Embiid. The lack of confidence he showed late manifested in the worst way for Philadelphia, Embiid unsure of the best decision to make when the ball was in his hands.
Even with the Sixers closing the first half with a seven-point lead, they were putting some strain on the Lakers with a multi-possession advantage throughout the second quarter.
Despite absolutely abhorrent shooting from Embiid in the first half, Philadelphia was 14 points better than the Lakers were when he was on the court. On the other hand, Los Angeles was seven points better in the minutes Andre Drummond was on the court.
I can understand if Nick Nurse thinks he's extracting better defensive or rebounding effort from Drummond by giving him the leash to shoot the occasional three, but there needs to be a consideration for time and place.
If he makes it, you sigh in relief. If he misses it, you're scrambling back in transition. The decision-making on those threes is especially brutal when he's calling his own number with Maxey one pass away and plenty of time left on the shot clock.
You could live with it if that was the only bad decision he was making on the court. But possessions end in Drummond trying to save the Sixers by isolating in the post a little too often. Again, time and place. And during a run to extend the lead against a good team is not the time and place.
Those offensive rebounds need to be kick-outs to open shooters because the best time for a three is on the offensive rebound. Drummond choosing to battle at the rim for points inside was not the right decision in those moments.
Drummond ultimately did a lot of heavy lifting for the Sixers in the third quarter and was on the court as they fought back toward the end of the frame. So all was not lost for him in this game.
Something should give as this season goes on. Embiid will either have to start making a more efficient percentage of his three-point looks or the Sixers may have to start preparing themselves for a postseason opportunity by removing Dominick Barlow from the starting lineup.
Barlow is effectively a non-shooter. He will be treated as such by opposing defenses as this season goes on. They will actively use his lack of shooting threat as a tactic to kill Philadelphia's offense in a playoff situation. The way for Barlow to exist in a lineup that doesn't punish the Sixers is to create gaps for him to cut or lurk in the dunker's spot.
That would theoretically work in a world where Embiid is torturing teams from three. He's currently shooting 25 percent from three on the season. If he is not striking fear from deep, that's one more defender sagging toward help instead of the ball. That makes it a tad more difficult for Barlow to function on offense.
Moreover, if Barlow's man is completely ignoring him, it leaves someone to roam around the paint, pinching driving lanes for Maxey and Paul George while taking Embiid away from his preferred touch points.
If you have Barlow's man clogging up the back line and Embiid's man not treating his three-point looks with urgency, how are you going to pose a real threat to anyone in a seven-game series?
Even if Embiid is making threes at a higher clip, what is the possession-to-possession value proposition of him spacing out to the arc instead of the elbows?
So something has to give. And if it's not Embiid's three-point shooting regressing to a respectable efficiency, you should be thinking about getting these heavy-minute players used to an environment where Embiid and Barlow aren't partnering in the frontcourt.
Perhaps that value proposition arrived in the fourth quarter. Barlow played about 24 minutes through three quarters and did not play at all in the fourth quarter. That might've changed how the game played out in crunch time, James taking over to bury the Sixers in the game's dying minutes. Quentin Grimes took the responsibility of guarding him and could not stave off James' physicality in a clear floor.
That wasn't the only time that someone went missing from the rotation. After the game, Nurse reasoned that he did not love the defensive matchups for McCain in this game. Fair enough. But the Lakers went zone while the Sixers were sinking in yet another third quarter. Philadelphia could've used McCain's shooting to break the zone, but he was on the bench.
