Justin Edwards, a sigh of relief and the beautiful randomness of NBA basketball

Philadelphia — Derrick White insisted that he had a case to appeal to the nearest official.

He felt he'd been fouled when Andre Drummond hard-hedged him as the Sixers scrambled on White's ball screen for Jaylen Brown on the game's final possession.

It was probably neither the time nor the place to cry for justice, as his teammate Brown had gotten away with three blatant shoves trying to create separation on Boston possessions in the last six minutes of the game.

White lost control of the basketball and had to run well beyond his shooting range to retrieve the rock in the dying seconds of the contest. He threw up a prayer, which landed in Neemias Queta's hands for a last-second attempt at a tip-in.

No dice.

The Sixers were winners.

Tyrese Maxey rebounded Queta's miss and chucked the ball down to the other end of the court, dismissing the visitors from his palace.

It was a sigh of relief. For him. For the Sixers. For Philadelphia.

The Sixers earned their seventh win of the season largely on the back of a torrid shooting night from second-year wing Justin Edwards.

Edwards' night would've equated to a sigh of relief for most people struggling to meet expectations at work. He's had a rough start to the season. If it was a sigh of relief for him, he won't admit it publicly.

Tuesday was the night that Edwards' blind faith in his preparation paid off. The second-year wing shot 8-for-9 from the field. He made five of his six three-point attempts. The only miss was the last one, a would-be game-winner had it gone down.

"It didn't feel good...but I shot it," Edwards said after the game, inducing a laugh in the media room. 

"And, like I said, a game-winning miss. A little joke. [Kelly Oubre Jr.] tapped it in. So it all worked out in our favor."

Oubre was in the perfect spot at the perfect time. He caught the rebound off Edwards' miss and quickly kissed the ball off the glass for a put-back that gave Philadelphia a lead it would not relinquish.

Another sigh of relief was coming.

Before Nick Nurse entered the media room for his postgame press conference, the Sixers announced an update to local media.

Paul George, who has yet to play this season as he recovers from left knee surgery, met with doctors on Tuesday to assess his progress.

The final stage of his return-to-play plan involves the continued strengthening of his left quadriceps. It will be managed through a strength and conditioning program and on-court basketball activities.

He will be re-evaluated later this week.

But wait, there's two parts to this sigh of relief.

Joel Embiid, who was a surprise scratch earlier in the day, underwent imaging on his right knee after reporting soreness at Tuesday's shootaround. There are no structural issues. He is day-to-day.

Nurse would not rule either player out for upcoming practices or games.

We'll see.

Of the things that Nurse has to spend his every waking moment worrying about with his team, Edwards is not one of them.

"I think I've said this to you guys before, like, I love him. I don't worry about him. He works extremely hard, he's really worked on his shooting. He goes out there and tries as hard as he can on defense every time," Nurse told reporters after the victory.

"He's not perfect. But he's a really good developing, young player that I love. He has as bad game, it doesn't even faze me because I love him."

Nurse trusts Edwards' habits so implicitly that he's not concerned about the Philadelphia native having good games to validate his belief.

He knows the results will come. Nurse has assured Edwards of that.

The coach and his prospect shared a moment in a recent practice. Edwards was sitting on the sideline when Nurse said, "I'm not worried about you and you shouldn't be worried about yourself. It's all going to work out".

Nurse's public confidence means a lot to Edwards. "It shows that I've been waiting my turn and today was my day, honestly," Edwards said.

Was it ever.

Edwards gave the Sixers a boost in the second quarter as Maxey recharged on the bench. He brought them back from the dead late in the fourth quarter.

Edwards claims he effectively blacked out, that he had no recollection of his barrage of threes in the fourth quarter. "You telling me I hit three threes in a row, that's my first time hearing about it because I didn't even know I did that," he said after the game.

By Edwards' own account, he's shown more emotional restraint since entering the NBA. He claims he was a more animated player in high school.

But even he, in his blacked-out state, couldn't suppress the emotional high of the slew of threes.

Edwards bellowed after his second and third makes of the fourth quarter, which brought the Sixers to within two points and gave them the lead, respectively.

Edwards was asked if he remembered what he yelled during the barrage. His mother, watching her son from the back of the press room answered. "I know. But if he says it, he's going to get a beating."

Another loud laugh in the media room.

"She knows," Edwards added.

The family-friendly version of what he shouted? "Let's freaking go," Edwards offered.

There's something intoxicating about watching a shooter catch the hot hand. It's even stronger when that player is part of the supporting cast rather than a main character.

On Monday night, Detroit Pistons reserve Daniss Jenkins scored 24 points in 33 minutes of action. He converted four of his six three-point attempts, one of which tied the game at the fourth-quarter buzzer. The Pistons won in overtime. Cade Cunningham scored 46 points on 45 shots. Jenkins was Detroit's second leading scorer.

On Tuesday night, it was Edwards who led Philadelphia in scoring.

The random rarely ever happens in football, yet it can power a run to the World Series in baseball. 

But the random is a requisite for winning in basketball. On a night-to-night basis or the key ingredient to a deep playoff run.

The possibility of a Justin Edwards heater is one of the things that makes NBA basketball a beautifully entertaining business.

While the Imhotep product electrified the locals, Nurse drew attention to Maxey for seeing the open man ahead of the play.

"I thought he made a couple great kick-outs really right when we needed them. And he was feeling those kick-outs. He was asking for certain guys to be certain places because he knew he thought they'd be open. So he was doing a good job of reading that stuff," Nurse explained.

Maxey was second on the team in scoring with 21 points. His minutes were noticeably down. Edwards' hot start helped preserve Maxey, who might've otherwise had to return to the game early in the second quarter if the offense continued to stall.

The burgeoning superstar is taking any shot he wants right now. You get to do that when you're near the top of the league in scoring. But his floor game has improved quite a bit, as well.

21 points on 17 shots with eight free throws is a good night at the office. 21 points on 5-for-17 shooting with eight free throws and nine assists is how you problem-solve on the fly to help drive winning.

Jordan Walsh challenged Maxey quite a bit in the fourth quarter. His length lowered Maxey's shot quality. Nurse saw a way around it. But he wanted to save some of the scouting for future use.

"He was doing a good job, but eventually in the possession he was trying to force him a certain direction. So we were trying to flip the angles of the screens a little bit to give Tyrese some type of driving lane where the big was, he wasn't staring right at the big," Nurse said. 

"Drum was doing a pretty decent job of that. I mean, Tyrese did get down the paint. There was length and they were pulling in. He had to make some shots over some pretty long guys there a couple times or get them up, anyway."

The Sixers gave themselves some breathing room as they play the waiting game with Embiid and George. But they know their style of winning isn't sustainable.

"11 games and nine of them have ended at the horn. That's pretty amazing, really," Nurse said with a chuckle.

They need consistency, or as much of it as they can get with Embiid. Nurse is confident that he'll continue to play better as he plays more games and develops more rhythm with an increased minute load.

Philadelphia needs George to fill the void at forward. They need Dominick Barlow to help with the rebounding.

The Sixers need to figure out the third quarters. They were outscored by 16 in the first 12 minutes out of halftime on Tuesday.

"I don't know. Now I'm going to say I'd rather be a better fourth-quarter team than third-quarter team because our fourth quarters are pretty damn good," Nurse said with a smile. 

He knows it's not a road to victory they can continue to travel. But he also can't preoccupy himself with something for which there's no clear answer. Nurse mentioned starting lineup changes for each half as a potential experiment for resolving the third-quarter woes.

"I don't know, maybe we'll just do halftime down on the bench instead of coming up to the locker room. That's something else we can try," Nurse joked.

Apparently everyone's a comedian in the wake of a win.