Oct 25, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia 76ers guard Quentin Grimes (5) celebrates with teammates after his score in the closing seconds of the fourth quarter against the Charlotte Hornets at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
Philadelphia — It was a shot that would drive any coach mad.
If Charles Lee was on truth serum, he'd probably tell you it made him cringe on the inside, too.
LaMelo Ball received the ball with nine seconds on the shot clock, the game even with 42 seconds left in regulation.
Sixers rookie VJ Edgecombe squatted into a defensive stance. He was not going to shy away from the challenge.
Ball danced four seconds off the shot clock and launched from 30 feet. The ball barely grazed the rim.
Nick Nurse had two timeouts at his disposal with 35 seconds on the game clock. He let his troops run.
It was an astute tactic. Calling a timeout would give Charlotte a chance to put their best defensive players on the court. If they got a stop, they could burn their last timeout and make an offense-for-defense substitution.
The Sixers had targeted Hornets rookie Kon Knueppel on defense all night. Opting to let the clock run would ensure that Knueppel was available for targeting on Philadelphia's ensuing possession.
Quentin Grimes was the rookie's natural matchup.
Grimes screened Tre Mann, triggering a defensive switch that put Knueppel on Tyrese Maxey.
Intentional or not, it was a chess move that was about to play out perfectly for Philadelphia.
Mann felt the urge to shade toward Maxey, who could've devoured Knueppel if he wanted to. The shading left Grimes open on the wing after he popped out of the ball screen.
Maxey used Charlotte's plan against them. Mann could not beat the pass to Grimes, setting up an open three with 16 seconds to play.
The guy who took the qualifying offer was about to make another bet on himself.
What happened next sent Xfinity Mobile Arena into a frenzy.
"Simple read. If they blitz Tyrese, got to come up and be ready to knock that shot down. Hit a similar shot last year against Brooklyn but we didn't come out with the win. This time, we were able to come out with a 'W'," Grimes told reporters after the 125-121 victory.
The Sixers did not record their second win until November 10 last season. They're 2-0 to start the 2025-26 season.
They could very easily be 0-2. The way they've played in the third quarters of these first two games, they're more lucky than anything that the coin has landed the way it has.
On one hand, these gut-it-out victories build character. They give you reminders of who you are as a team. Those reminders will be useful when adversity strikes.
On the other hand, the Sixers have not played a complete game through these first two. They've had to dig out of holes in the fourth quarters of both games. It's not sustainable.
"It's not ideal to be down two games in a row and have to pull out a win, but I feel like just give a lot of credit to the guys in practice. Coach Nurse has been putting us in those situations, whether it's five-on-five, defensive drills, just fighting every single day," Grimes said.
"It kind of translates when you go into a game and you got to fight and scrap and claw to pull out a win. We really did that in the last two games. So a lot of credit to all the guys coming in, working every day no matter what and just finding a way to win when it counts the most."
Perhaps the best thing to come of these first two games - besides being undefeated - is that the Sixers are building a proof of concept for how to win without Joel Embiid.
"It's been 12 years, so I'll take it," Embiid joked after the game.
"Got to keep it going. Obviously the most important games are the best teams and the playoffs. If that's the effort we're going to have when I'm not on the floor, amen. It's been a long time."
The big man played just under five minutes in the second half - all at the start of the third quarter. He ran up against his 20-minute restriction.
Embiid looked much better on offense throughout those 20 minutes. Funny what happens when you make shots. But it wasn't just the shots falling. That was always going to come with time. It was the force with which he played.
Embiid attacked off the dribble, welcoming contact in the paint. He attacked gaps of space, seeing opportunities to apply rim pressure by faking DHOs and accelerating when he rejected the hand-off.
He's not all the way back on that end of the floor. But you can see Embiid beginning to trust that he can still execute his old tricks.
The defensive end remains a work in progress. He would not jump to contest shots in the first half. That was problematic given the degree to which the Hornets were able to penetrate the paint off the dribble.
Embiid was less conservative in his limited action in the second half, and he briefly deterred some of Charlotte's offense in the paint.
It's difficult to see a reality where the Sixers consistently have him defending the perimeter. So that makes Embiid a drop big, which is what he's been throughout his career but perhaps even more so now. If he's going to drop, there will be moments in which he has to be more aggressive. You can't be a two-way big and not be springy at the rim in a drop coverage.
But he and the Sixers are in the business of taking baby steps right now. Frankly, this is the time to do it.
The minutes restriction is certainly part of those baby steps. Embiid made it known that he wants the restriction loosened. Nick Nurse hopes that that day will come soon.
But for Saturday, Nurse had a decision to make when Embiid's allotment ran out.
He went with Andre Drummond. It flipped a game that seemed to be getting away from the Sixers.
The veteran big played about 16 minutes in the second half. The Sixers were 12 points better than the Hornets were in those minutes. Drummond pulled down 13 rebounds in those minutes, split nearly equally across the defensive and offensive glasses.
The Sixers spent most of the second half trying to recover a lead that they fumbled away early in the third quarter.
"I was just kind of reminding them, it was like 10-11. I was like, 'This is right where we were the other night'," Nurse said.
"We're going to have to make a few stops and you guys are going to have to get up the floor and start pulling the trigger on some plays on offense. And that's kind of what happened."
You're never quite sure what you're going to get from Drummond. But he was there to retrieve a Maxey layup that landed on the front of the rim and flush it back to give the Sixers a lead with a little more than two minutes to play.
And when the Hornets got a touch discombobulated on offense, Drummond was there to limit their possessions to the first shot.
"Great, extremely happy for him. Obviously last year, everybody had a tough year. But like Coach just said, try to figure out how everybody fits in and who can help. I'm extremely happy for him. Proud of him. Great effort," Embiid said.
"We wouldn't have won that game without him. So it was good to see. That's the Drummond that we wanted back two years ago."
