Philadelphia’s home opener offered two versions of the same team, and only one of them looked like a contender.
For 24 minutes, the 76ers were buried. The Cleveland Cavaliers stretched the lead to 29 points, scored 69 in the first half and made Philadelphia look flat enough that the building turned on them. By the end, the Sixers had erased the entire deficit and won 114-106, turning a game that looked out of reach into the largest comeback in the play-by-play era for the franchise.
That split is now the story. Not just that the Sixers rallied, but that they looked lifeless before halftime and overwhelming after it.
The first half was ugly in the numbers that usually tell the truth. Philadelphia missed 11 of 15 three-pointers and committed 14 turnovers before the break, its most in a half since January 2024. Cleveland, meanwhile, kept piling on. Donovan Mitchell scored 32 points for the Cavaliers, and Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley combined for 29 first-half points before being held to just three after halftime.
Then the game flipped.
Tyrese Maxey led the charge with 32 points and six assists, and his fourth-quarter pressure helped spark a 15-0 run that changed the night. Joel Embiid scored seven straight points to pull Philadelphia within 96-95, then later hit a 16-foot jumper at the 6:54 mark of the fourth quarter to put the Sixers ahead for good.
Maxey’s defensive effort was part of the turn, too. The Sixers forced 15 Cavaliers turnovers after halftime while giving it away only twice themselves in the second half. That was the kind of clean, aggressive stretch that made the first half look like it belonged to a different team entirely.
The contrast is what makes the comeback harder to file away as a one-night escape. Philadelphia has now opened the season with wins over the NBA champion Knicks and the Eastern Conference finalist Cavaliers, but the path to both victories has been uneven. Against Cleveland, the Sixers did not simply recover from a bad start; they transformed the game after halftime.
That is why the comeback feels bigger than the final score. The question is no longer whether Philadelphia can rally from a deficit. It already has. The question is whether this team’s early-season identity is built on sustaining pressure from the start, or on becoming something else once the game gets late.