Sixers takeaways: A never-quit approach and Justin Edwards’ revival highlight win over Celtics

Even when the 76ers are outmuscled, outshot, and pretty much out-everythinged, they never stop fighting.

Justin Edwards can still be a solid role player for them.

And there will always be injury uncertainty surrounding Joel Embiid.

Those three things stood out in the Sixers’ 102-100 victory over the Boston Celtics on Tuesday at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

» READ MORE: Tyrese Maxey and Kelly Oubre lift Sixers to 102-100 win over Celtics

The Sixers (7-4) battled back from an eight-point deficit with 6 minutes, 15 seconds remaining to pull out their two-point victory.

Kelly Oubre Jr.’s tip-in of Edwards’ missed three-pointer with 8.7 seconds remaining was the winning basket.

“Obviously, just trying to get the ball, get the rebound,” Oubre said of what was going through his mind in that moment. “Obviously, it was a very clutch moment. But just staying ready. Justin didn’t really miss [before his final shot]. I didn’t expect him to miss. And I don’t think anybody else on the court did. So just in the right place at the right time.”

You would have been hard-pressed to find any of the 19,746 fans in attendance surprised by the Sixers’ later heroics. They’ve made a habit of come-from-behind victories at the start of the season.

“It’s a good thing to have, knowing how resilient you are as a team,” Quentin Grimes said. “But we know, we don’t want to be in too many of those games, coming into that third quarter, a team makes a run. Then we have to fight, and claw, and scratch to get the lead back.

“But it’s a testament to how hard we’ve been working as a team, how collected we are as a group in that locker. So it shows on the court with those scrappy late fourth-quarter and overtime wins. But we don’t want to be playing like that for the rest of the season.”

Edwards made his first eight shot attempts and finished 8-for-9 while scoring a team-high 22 points.

Tyrese Maxey added 21 points and nine assists. Grimes (18 points), Andre Drummond (14 points, 13 rebounds), and Oubre (12 points) were the other double-digit scorers.

And VJ Edgecombe had a clutch three-pointer and a blocked shot in the fourth quarter, on a night when he scored six points on 2-for-11 shooting.

Jaylen Brown finished with a game-high 24 points for the Celtics (5-7).

The Sixers fell apart in the third quarter. Again.

This time, they made 6 of 23 shots — including going 2 of 10 on three-pointers — and were outscored, 36-20, in the quarter.

Grimes made 2 of 3 shots for five points in the frame. Maxey had nine points, but made just 2 of 6 shots. Drummond (1-for-5), Oubre (1-for-4), Trendon Watford (0-for-3), and VJ Edgecombe (0-for-2) also struggled.

The Sixers also failed to get stops, as the Celtics (5-7) shot 65.2% and made 5 of 9 three-pointers in the quarter. That gave them a 77-71 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

But none of this is surprising.

The Sixers struggled in the third quarter in Saturday’s loss to the Detroit Pistons and in most of this season’s games.

At this point, this should be addressed.

But …

“I’d rather be a better fourth-quarter team than a third-quarter team,” coach Nick Nurse said. “Fourth quarters are pretty damn good. But I’ll keep working on it. We’ll keep working on it.”

Based on last season’s solid play, Edwards was the biggest disappointment over the summer and to start this season.

During that time, the second-year player failed to elevate his game, mainly playing against inferior competition in the Salt Lake City and NBA summer leagues. The former Imhotep Charter standout also averaged just 4.2 points on 34.8% shooting during his first five appearances this season.

But he started to turn things around in the Sixers’ road loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers last week. On Tuesday, Edwards was one of his team’s best players.

» READ MORE: Joel Embiid will sit out against the Boston Celtics with right knee soreness

The reserve forward finished with 16 points above his updated scoring average — including making 5 of 6 three-pointers — to go with three rebounds and three assists.

Nine of his points came on 3-for-3 shooting — including two three-pointers — in the first half.

“It’s a miss or make league,” Edwards said. “So I really can’t beat myself up on the misses. Even on the makes, I can’t get too high. I got to stay level headed.

“So I’m going to go back to the drawing board and just continue to work.”

He did much more than score the ball. Edwards crashed the boards, had a couple of heady assists, and played solid defense.

This is the type of production Edwards must continue to make for the Sixers to have a successful season.

But Nurse was never concerned about the 6-foot-7, 217-pounder.

“I think I said this to you guys before, like, I love him,” Nurse said. “I don’t worry about him. Works extremely hard. He really worked on his shooting. He goes out there and tries extremely hard on defense every time. He’s not perfect.

“But he’s a really good developing young player that I love. If he has a bad game, it doesn’t even phase me, because I love him.”

» READ MORE: Marcus Hayes: Latest injury to Joel Embiid feels like the end of hope for the Sixers

Embiid was always expected to miss time this season.

Most expected that it would be associated with his left knee, which he had surgery on for the second time in 14 months in April. It was also the third surgery on the knee in nine years.

But Embiid reported soreness in his right knee at Tuesday morning’s shootaround. He underwent imaging on the knee that afternoon and missed the game.

» READ MORE: Sixers rookie Johni Broome just ‘waiting until my opportunity’ to prove himself on NBA level

After the game, Nurse said there was no structural damage and Embiid is listed day-to-day.

The 2023 MVP and seven-time All-Star has missed five of the Sixers’ 11 games. The first four were to rest his left knee.

He’s been getting at least two days off in between games. As a result, the 7-2, 280-pounder hasn’t played in both games of back-to-backs.

But his being ruled out of Tuesday’s game is a reminder of the uncertainty surrounding Embiid’s availability due to various injuries and ailments.