Copyright phillyvoice
It is hard to fathom that the Sixers currently stand at 4-0. A summer filled with negativity and skepticism has been trounced by four games of perseverance and bliss from a team that has suddenly become a whole lot of fun to watch. At the center of it all is a young backcourt that has quickly become one of the best collections of guard talent in the entire league. Tyrese Maxey is playing like a full-blown superstar at point guard. Starting next to him is VJ Edgecombe, who is enjoying one of the strongest starts to an NBA career in recent history. Very few players are producing off the bench like Quentin Grimes, shining in a role which effectively makes him a sixth starter for the Sixers. And this is all without Jared McCain, who just regained his ability to shoot normally as he recovers from a torn UCL in his right thumb. The Sixers have a terrific group of guards, and it is going to face a few unique challenges in the games to come. The Sixers may not stay undefeated until April, but they clearly have a much greater capacity to win games than anticipated. Their guard play is the biggest reason why. Previewing the next four games for the Sixers in the week ahead, with a focus on their backcourt: vs. Boston Celtics (Friday, 7:00 p.m., NBA Cup Group Play) Days before making his NBA debut, Edgecombe tabbed Boston Celtics guard Derrick White as one of three elite perimeter defenders he studies in an effort to get better on that end of the floor. Then, Edgecombe went ahead and scored 34 points with White as his primary defender: Meanwhile, Maxey scored 40 points in a brilliant masterclass of his own, and Grimes shook off a rough start before giving the Sixers massive minutes down the stretch. The Sixers erased a double-digit deficit in the final frame, storming back to win in Boston. White is one of the NBA's most impactful role players of the last several years, and Boston also has two dynamic scoring guards in Payton Pritchard and Anfernee Simons. But it was the Sixers' trio of guards that was far and away the better grouping, and it won them the game despite Joel Embiid playing 20 putrid minutes. With Jared McCain (thumb) still sidelined, Friday's game will once again include a showdown between these teams' trios of high-powered guards, and in addition to being relied on for significant scoring the Sixers' guards will have some challenging defensive assignments on their hands. And, for what it's worth, Friday's game will be the opening contest of Group Play in the NBA Cup. How will that impact the game? For one, if a team is comfortably leading in the final minutes of the game, do not expect it to merely run out the clock. Point differential is a critical factor in Group Play. But will either party ramp up its efforts in order to secure an NBA Cup victory? If so, the Celtics feel like the more plausible team to do so. It is basically impossible for Sixers head coach Nick Nurse to play Maxey or Edgecombe more minutes than he already is; the only way the Sixers could increase their intensity is to play Embiid more frequently. The Sixers are being almost excruciatingly careful with their management of Embiid right now, so this feels unlikely. Meanwhile, from the Celtics' perspective... why not go for it? The Celtics do not have nearly enough talent to contend for a championship this season unless Jayson Tatum's early return from a devastating injury is one of many breaks they are on the right side of. But with those three guards and Jaylen Brown, they clearly have enough ability to win any particular game, as they showed with an impressive win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday. Why not make a spirited push at winning the group and advancing to the Knockout Rounds to try to earn all of the players extra money? MORE: Dissecting film of Sixers' win in Boston on opening night @ Brooklyn Nets (Sunday, 6:00 p.m.) Even after a 4-0 start, the Sixers cannot approach any game as if it will be handed to them. But there is arguably no worse team in the NBA this year than the Brooklyn Nets, whose early season surge last year is partly responsible for the Sixers losing enough games to even be in the position to draft Edgecombe in the first place. Brooklyn ended up with 6-foot-8 guard Egor Dëmin at No. 8 overall, and ended up selecting another four players later in the first round. They have the youngest roster in the entire NBA, with the only "veterans" getting minutes right now being Michael Porter Jr., Nic Claxton and Terance Mann. A loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night dropped the Nets to 0-5. Entering Thursday, the Nets' 129.1 Defensive Rating was the worst in the NBA by nearly eight points, a truly abominable number; their Net Rating is 29th out of 30 teams. If there is a vulnerability for the Sixers in this game, it is the Embiid vs. Claxton matchup. There is no love lost between the two players, and as Embiid tries to work himself back into peak form while playing without anything close to full mobility, he runs the risk of being overwhelmed athletically by someone like Claxton, whose movement skills as a rim-running center are quite impressive. @ Chicago Bulls (Tuesday, 8:00 p.m.) As of this writing, only two teams in the Eastern Conference are undefeated: the 4-0 Sixers, and the 4-0 Chicago Bulls. Such a thing felt like an impossibility just a handful of days ago, but that is why the games are played. Chicago's success feels a bit more like a fluke, as their third-best Defensive Rating among all NBA teams entering Thursday's action does not exactly reflect the poor defensive personnel on roster. Opposing teams are making 25.9 percent of their three-point attempts against the Bulls through four games; no other team has had their opponents shoot below 30 percent from beyond the arc. Still, the Bulls are playing inspired basketball now, and it is not all that dissimilar from the Sixers: they have a guard-heavy rotation with a few quality ball-handling options, have continued pushing the pace and are reaping many of the benefits of that look. The Bulls are not quite as small as they were when head coach Billy Donovan opted to start four guards against the Sixers in December, but they still can go from end-to-end quickly. Maxey, Edgecombe and Grimes will have to keep their heads on a swivel. Leading the Bulls' on-court operation is Josh Giddey, whose restricted free agency reached a happy ending when the Bulls gave him a four-year, $100 million contract to cement him as their lead guard of the future. Giddey had no chance of securing that kind of money on the open market last summer, but Chicago opted to meet in the middle with the Australian guard to ensure he was under a long-term contract and did not take the qualifying offer to become an unrestricted free agent next summer. Should the Sixers have done the same with Quentin Grimes? THE SIXERS ARE 4-0 (INSTANT OBSERVATIONS) Sixers 117, Celtics 116 | Hornets 121, Sixers 125 Magic 124, Sixers 136 | Sixers 139, Wizards 134 (OT) @ Cleveland Cavaliers (Wednesday, 7:00 p.m.) The 3-2 Cavaliers have not enjoyed the sort of dominant opening to their season that they did last year, when Cleveland began the season 15-0. Part of that is that their team is different; star guard Darius Garland has yet to play this season due to a toe injury suffered last season, which helped derail Cleveland's playoff chances. Garland recently took an assignment to the G League to get practice reps in; whether or not he could return before this game is unclear. No matter what, the Sixers will have their hands full with Donovan Mitchell, who before posting a 15-point clunker in Boston on Thursday while battling injury was averaging 31.3 points per game while shooting 56.4 percent from the field: Lonzo Ball has had a slow start to the year statistically, but sharpshooter Sam Merrill has been outstanding early on in a starting role, knocking down 18 of his 35 long-range tries (51.4 percent) in four games. It will be easy for the Sixers to lock in on defending Mitchell if Garland does not play, but they cannot forget about one of the league's better three-point shooters whose numbers have been out of this world so far in 2025-26. Of course, Cleveland also presents significant interior challenges; the duo of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen is always a handful and will be just that for the Sixers if they are not met with physicality. Two-way forward Dominick Barlow, out for the Sixers' last 2.5 games, would be a very useful piece in this game if he has returned from an elbow laceration suffered in Saturday's home opener against Charlotte. MORE: How will Sixers look with Paul George and Jared McCain healthy? Follow Adam on Twitter: @SixersAdam
