Tyrese Maxey scored 27 points and supplied eight assists as the Philadelphia 76ers recovered from a 17-point deficit to beat the Toronto Raptors 123–112 on 12 November at Xfinity Mobile Arena. The teams were level at 60 at halftime, and Philadelphia opened a nine-point lead by the end of the third quarter. Joel Embiid returned after leaving the floor briefly in the first quarter and finished with 20 points. Toronto’s RJ Barrett led all scorers with 31 and added 14 rebounds. The win took Philadelphia to 10–3, while Toronto fell to 5–7.

The final score reflects changes in three parts of the game. Toronto used transition opportunities to open the lead. Philadelphia recovered with stops and improved shooting before halftime, then scored 36 points in the third quarter for the second straight period. When Toronto narrowed the margin again in the fourth, Philadelphia’s reserves supplied timely perimeter scoring. The two teams were separated by just one made three-pointer in Toronto’s favour at the final buzzer, a useful starting point for understanding how a team can shoot well from outside and still lose by double figures.

How the first-quarter lead disappeared

Toronto led 33–16 during the opening period, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Raptors made 12 of 24 field-goal attempts in that quarter and scored 11 fast-break points. Sportsnet reported that neither Barrett nor Immanuel Quickley missed a shot in the period. The advantage was already down to nine at the break between quarters, 33–24. That recovery before the second quarter mattered because it gave Philadelphia a smaller deficit to address while Toronto’s offence went quiet. The Inquirer identified a scoreless stretch for Toronto of four minutes and 24 seconds across the quarter break.

Philadelphia missed seven of its first eight three-point attempts, then made four of its next five during the recovery. The Inquirer measured the broader swing at 19–1, while Sportsnet identified a 15–0 stretch that levelled the game early in the second quarter. The figures describe different stretches of the same comeback. Defensive stops made it possible to erase the lead on successive possessions, and the change in outside shooting accelerated the work. Maxey had 14 points by halftime and Jaylen Brown had 12. The tied score meant the second half began with the advantage Toronto built in transition already spent.

Embiid’s early exit made that stretch more consequential for Philadelphia. The Inquirer reported a knee-to-knee collision with Ja’Kobe Walter as Embiid set a screen. He went to the locker room briefly and returned before the first quarter ended. The box score credits him with 28 minutes and 20 seconds, seven field goals and six free throws. That establishes the return and the role he played in this game. The brief departure came after Philadelphia had upgraded him from questionable because of his foot, a separate issue from the contact with Walter. The distinction matters when reading what happened on the floor and why he was on the pregame injury report.

Where Philadelphia found the extra possessions

The official totals give Philadelphia 88 field-goal attempts to Toronto’s 84, and 46 made baskets to 40. The 76ers shot 52.3 percent from the floor. The Raptors shot 47.6 percent. Toronto actually made 14 threes to Philadelphia’s 13, and each team made 18 free throws. Subtracting the made threes from the field-goal totals leaves Philadelphia with 33 two-point baskets and Toronto with 26. Those seven additional twos were worth 14 points, while Toronto’s extra three reduced the difference to 11. This is the scoring arithmetic behind the margin and helps put the fourth-quarter three-pointers in context.

Philadelphia also led 11–6 in offensive rebounds. Jabari Walker collected four of those 11 in less than 16 minutes, while Dean Wade grabbed three. Walker scored nine points and took eight rebounds overall. Each offensive rebound can extend a possession after a miss, giving the team another opportunity to make a basket or draw a foul. That matters in a game in which Toronto matched Philadelphia in free throws made and had an extra three. Sportsnet also credited Philadelphia with 24 points from 12 Toronto turnovers. The two statistics describe different sources of opportunity: an offensive rebound keeps an existing possession alive, whereas a takeaway can interrupt a Toronto attack and send Philadelphia the other way.

Maxey’s own scoring line illustrates a different part of the equation. He made eight of 13 field-goal attempts, including one three-pointer, and 10 of 12 free throws. Seven of his eight field goals were therefore worth two points. His volume at the line made up a substantial share of his 27 points, and his eight assists show how often his distribution led directly to teammates’ baskets. Brown added 18 points on eight of 15 shooting and made no threes. The two starters’ shot profiles explain why the overall Philadelphia attack could score efficiently even when two of its leading scorers combined for only one made shot from beyond the arc.

Bench shooting gave the lead room to survive

Philadelphia won the third quarter 36–27 and entered the fourth ahead 96–87. Jamison Battle later hit a three-pointer that cut the gap to six with just under five minutes remaining. The Associated Press tracked a 10–3 Philadelphia response that ended with a Kentavious Caldwell-Pope three. Sportsnet and The Inquirer both identified late three-pointers from Caldwell-Pope and Anfernee Simons. A nine-point lead going into a quarter can be threatened by a handful of possessions. Once Battle brought Toronto within six, the ability to answer from outside made it harder for the Raptors to build on that basket.

The nine-point margin at the start of the fourth was part of a longer change in control. Sportsnet tracked a 16–2 run spanning the end of the third and the opening of the fourth. The timing helps explain why the halftime tie and the six-point game late in the fourth can both be true without the contest having been close at every stage between them. Philadelphia first gained separation, Toronto made up some ground, and Philadelphia answered. The points in the 16–2 stretch describe the initial separation. The later 10–3 response explains how the 76ers protected it when the game tightened.

Simons made five of six threes and scored 17 points in 23:19. Caldwell-Pope made three of five and finished with 11 points and five assists. Together they supplied eight of Philadelphia’s 13 made threes. That concentration is relevant because Maxey, Embiid and Brown provided most of their scoring inside the arc or at the line. Toronto’s defence had to deal with the starters’ ability to score in those areas and with reserves whose shots carried a different cost if left available. The shooting figures do not establish that all eight makes came from the same action or coverage. They do establish how much of Philadelphia’s perimeter production came from two players coming off the bench.

VJ Edgecombe added 15 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and three steals. He committed no turnovers in 36:25. The 76ers finished with 31 assists, so Maxey and Edgecombe combined for 16, more than half of the team’s total. The value of that distribution becomes clearer in the lineup context. LeBron James was unavailable, and Philadelphia started Wade in his place. An eight-assist game from each starting guard helped provide creation across a rotation in which Caldwell-Pope also added five assists from the bench. Edgecombe’s rebounds and steals captured two other parts of his involvement, both of which helped finish or disrupt Toronto possessions.

Philadelphia’s final assist and turnover totals offer another check on the way the points were produced. It recorded 31 assists and 10 turnovers, compared with 26 and 12 for Toronto. The difference in assists was spread across several players. Embiid had three, Brown and Wade had two each, and Simons added two alongside his scoring. An assist records the pass that leads directly to a basket, so the total cannot show all the movement that opened a shot. It can establish that the scoring was supported by several passers, including players who spent much of their time finishing possessions themselves.

Toronto’s leading scorers and the schedule context

Barrett went 13-for-20 from the floor and made four of seven threes. His 14 rebounds all came at the defensive end, and he supplied five assists. The official box score gives Quickley 26 points, six assists and no turnovers. Sportsnet reported that he was working under a minutes restriction after a hamstring strain and played about 28 minutes. Together, Barrett and Quickley scored 57 of Toronto’s 112 points and supplied 11 of its 26 assists. Their numbers show why Toronto stayed within reach. The issue was whether that production could be matched elsewhere in the rotation as Philadelphia’s reserves helped lift the home team’s scoring.

There was also a concrete change from Toronto’s previous game. Sportsnet counted Barrett and Quickley at a combined eight made baskets on 30 field-goal attempts against Boston. In Philadelphia they combined for 21 on 36. That comparison spans just two nights, and the two defences presented different assignments, so it describes a change in output over a short interval. It nevertheless puts the loss in perspective. Toronto received far more scoring from its two principal perimeter creators than it had the night before. Their improvement helped sustain the offence, even as Philadelphia found more scoring in its own supporting rotation.

Battle contributed 13 points and made three threes. Collin Murray-Boyles scored 14, gave out four assists and blocked five shots, another way Toronto interrupted Philadelphia’s offence despite conceding 123. The Raptors were playing the second night of a back-to-back after a 98–93 home loss to Boston. They were without Kawhi Leonard and Scottie Barnes. Philadelphia had also lost its previous game to Boston, 123–101 on Tuesday, and played this one without James. Those absences and the schedule frame the rotations used on Thursday. They cannot be isolated as a single explanation for the final margin from a box score.

The clearest comparison remains what each team could do after the score tightened. Toronto twice put Philadelphia under pressure, first by taking a 17-point lead and later by getting within six. The 76ers responded first with a combination of stops and a change in three-point accuracy, then with scoring from a bench that hit eight threes through Simons and Caldwell-Pope. Between those responses, the starters kept scoring at the line and inside the arc, while Walker and Wade helped extend possessions. That combination explains Philadelphia’s tenth win more precisely than the lead scorers’ point totals on their own.

Sources

Archive photograph from Philadelphia’s game against Washington on 26 December 2021, resized for display. All-Pro Reels / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0.

Talal Osman