Sixers Ride Early Three-Point Barrage to Victory over Raptors

The Sixers did most of their damage early in the game, riding a torrid first half of shooting to a blowout victory on the second night of a back-to-back against the Toronto Raptors, exacting revenge for Sunday's heartbreaker up north.

Here's what happened.

Embiid and George return, improving the shot quality

It's easy to just add a player's scoring average back to the box score to estimate how they'll impact a game when they come back from an absence. But that's pretty drastically underselling just how impactful the returns of Joel Embiid and Paul George were for this game.

Embiid's impact was tangible from the first possession, Embiid setting picks for George to come off the left wing and get downhill. The first touch earned George two free throws. The second was a pull-up from the same spot, George punishing the under coverage by lacing the first of many threes for Philadelphia in this game.

It's anyone's best guess as to whether Sunday's shooting woes were a product of randomness or could be directly attributed to two pillars being unavailable, but the Sixers just got far better looks with George and Embiid on the court. The juxtaposition of Sunday's brickfest with the first half of this game made it all the more obvious how much those two shift a defense and create opportunities across the floor just by being present.

It certainly appeared as though the Raptors got the tired legs at a time when the Sixers were fresh, and that was essentially the game. Aside from a Brandon Ingram — who did not play on Sunday — sticking a handful of mid-range jumpers off the dribble, everything the Raptors shot pinged off the back rim or barely grazed the front of the rim.

Those tired legs didn't just kill Toronto's offense (which fed into transition opportunities for the Sixers). It carried over to their defense. They could not keep pace with the Sixers in the halfcourt setting, Philadelphia getting wide open shots on the first pass or swinging the ball from side to side. It didn't take much to get Toronto into rotations, and the Sixers exploited the gaps that those rotations created.

Tyrese Maxey gets revenge

Late in Sunday's loss, rookie Alijah Martin rubbed a Collin Murray-Boyles dunk in Maxey's face, and Maxey took notice:

The rook Alijah Martin really rubbed it in Tyrese Maxey’s face after the Collin Murray-Boyles dunk. 😭 😤

And I ABSOLUTELY love it.

Ever since a certain someone said the team lacked dawgs, we went after acquiring dawgs only. 🐶 💪

🎥: Raptors pic.twitter.com/iHoapGW7iv
— Omer Osman (@OmerOsman200) January 12, 2026

If you're the Raptors, you probably want to take the rookie aside and talk to him about that because you have to see that same guy across the court in 24 hours. Martin essentially wrote a check that he couldn't cash, and Maxey made his team pay.

He was surgical from the start. Maxey burst around Scottie Barnes for his first score of the game, punishing the Raptors star for a heavy closeout in rotation to get to the paint for a short jumper.

That was enough to pop the cork, and the rest of the first quarter was his party. Maxey built his heater with a balanced diet of shots. He didn't force threes early. He got to the foul line and the mid-range, expanding out to the three-point arc as the quarter went on. The Raptors still lacked urgency by the final minutes of the first, and Maxey executed on it. He pulled back on a crossover to create separation before lacing a deep one and then nailed a pull-up on the left wing to punish the under coverage on an Embiid screen.

He had 18 of his game-high 33 points in the first quarter, putting the Sixers in strong position to require only a neutral game the rest of the way to still win comfortably.

Toronto ups the pressure

The Raptors spent the second half making the game at least somewhat respectable, although they took advantage of the Sixers taking their foot off the gas after buliding an insurmountable lead. Toronto did exactly what a big, versatile team is supposed to do — up the defensive pressure. Not only did it pit the Sixers' offense against the shot clock for minutes at a time in the second half, but it also inherently sped Philadelphia up. If you're trying to beat ball pressure, you're trying to create some separation and blow by the guy in your way. Slowing down just lets the defender get back into the picture. So when the Sixers beat the pressure, the offense devolved into chaos.

Whether it was a missed shot or a live-ball turnover, the Sixers lost focus as the Raptors found their legs, allowing long stretches of floor for Toronto to drive for scores at the rim. It would be inaccurate to say the Sixers let them back into the game, but this game would've reached garbage time much sooner had Philadelphia not rested on the laurels of their first half.

Spare thoughts

More great minutes for Jabari Walker. The Sixers outscored the Raptors by 13 points in 14 minutes of action with Walker on the court. He fights at the rim like almost no one on the team and he has a knack for finishing strong through traffic. If he stops second-guessing his shot or defends without fouling, there's a real rotation player in there. He adds an old-school power forward touch at times, never dunking but earning layups by bullying defenders inside.

Barnes made a passionate plea to Darko Rajakovic to challenge a clear-as-day foul on Embiid's arms early in the first quarter. The Raptors lost the challenge. They should be deducted a challenge in their next game for that nonsense.

Very cool for Kyle Lowry to get one final spotlight moment in Toronto at the end of the game. If you ever wonder what his value is to this team, watch the footage of how his teammates reacted to him entering the game. They adore him in that locker room.

Five more threes for VJ Edgecombe. He's getting more and more confident in his off-the-dribble game, and he's increasingly bold in his shot distance. The second biggest wild card story of Philadelphia's season is that Edgecombe is already this capable of a shooter. He should be making you excited for next season to start, and he's not even halfway through his rookie year yet.