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Safe to say the Sixers have had less memorable home openers.
With new stars LeBron James and Jaylen Brown in town and the fans expecting something special, the Sixers fell into a giant hole Thursday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
They then hauled themselves out of it and delivered, earning a stunning comeback win over the Cavaliers by a 114-106 score.
Tyrese Maxey had 32 points and six assists.
Joel Embiid added 24 points. Brown posted 21, James 17.
Donovan Mitchell scored 32 points for Cleveland.
The sidelined Sixers were Dean Wade (left ankle sprain), Dominick Barlow (lower back stress reaction), Anfernee Simons (right Achilles tendon tear) and Tacko Fall (left quadriceps strain).
The 2-0 Sixers will play a home back-to-back over the weekend, facing the Bucks on Saturday and the Pistons on Sunday. Here are observations on their incredible victory over the Cavs:
Brutal start across the board
The home fans brought high volume from the opening tip-off. They booed every James Harden touch and cheered all things involving the Sixers’ new No. 23.
James scored the Sixers’ first points of the evening with a catch-and-shoot three-pointer. He had another highlight when he dished to VJ Edgecombe for a backdoor layup.
The Sixers’ start was otherwise full of negative plays. They paid on several occasions for trying to force passes into tight or non-existent windows. The team committed six turnovers in the first six minutes and James had half of them.
Missed jumpers were also responsible for many of the Sixers’ empty possessions. As was the case Tuesday in their opening-night win over the Knicks, they struggled early from long range, starting 2 for 13 beyond the arc.
The Sixers’ complete lack of free points did not help their cause. Remarkably, a team with so much physical power and talent attempted zero free throws until the 6:43 mark of the second quarter. The Sixers’ self-inflicted miscues were frequent and they could hardly find anything easy or positive.
Mitchell drilled a buzzer-beating three to give Cleveland a 35-18 lead after 12 minutes.
Defensive drop-off in first half
The Sixers hit double-digit turnovers by the first minute of the second quarter. The Cavs scored the game’s first 17 points off of turnovers and the Sixers’ deficit climbed as high as 29 points in the second.
The Sixers maintained the same nine-man rotation, using Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Anfernee Simons, Adem Bona and Jabari Walker off the bench. Everyone was ineffective in the first half. Bona’s first stint included a giveaway when Mario Hezonja ripped the ball away on an attempted dribble handoff, leading to a fast-break slam. The Sixers were outscored by 10 points in Bona’s 14 minutes.
In the first half, both the Sixers’ starters and bench defended at a far worse level than they had in New York.
The Cavs didn’t face great resistance on the ball and the Sixers’ rotations were often a step slow. Cleveland’s stars enjoyed tons of comfortable shots. Mitchell poured in 22 points over the first two quarters on 7-for-9 shooting.
Switch flipped
The Sixers flipped a switch in dramatic, crowd-thrilling fashion.
They made a 16-0 run that began late in the second quarter and ended early in the third. Edgecombe, James and Embiid all converted layups. The Sixers were not in a settling mood on offense and much more forceful on both ends of the floor.
Their defense was focused and aggressive. All of a sudden, it was the Cavs committing a flood of costly turnovers.
Brown got a fast-break layup following an Edgecombe steal. Maxey knifed through Cleveland’s defense for another lay-in and nailed a three-ball that prompted the free-falling Cavs to call timeout. Outside of any schematic complexities, the Sixers appeared extremely difficult to stop whenever they attacked in transition.
The Sixers cut their deficit down to 84-82 on a Maxey layup. Simons and Maxey missed go-ahead three-point tries soon after.
Finally, the Cavs regained a bit of stability. Hezonja’s turnaround jumper on Cleveland’s final possession of the third quarter put his team up 90-82.
The Sixers were relentless, though. They eventually broke all the way through, grabbing a 96-95 lead when Embiid canned a mid-range jumper.
The Cavs’ downward tumble continued. Brown went at Sam Merrill and feasted in isolation, scoring three straight buckets to push the Sixers’ advantage to 102-95.
There were no more twists in the tale.
In the big picture, the Sixers will aim to be a consistent team with reliable core elements by the time the playoffs roll around. In the present, it’s evident the Sixers’ top gear is tremendous and they’re not a team you should count out of games when all the stars are available.
This story originally appeared on NBCSportsPhiladelphia.com.