Sixers Bell Ringer: Sixers sit half the team and Thunder hand them third straight loss

Sixers Bell Ringer Season standings:

Jared McCain – 8
Joel Embiid – 7
Tyrese Maxey – 7
Paul George – 5
Guerschon Yabusele – 3
Kelly Oubre Jr – 2
Ricky Council IV – 2
KJ Martin – 2

Tonight, the Philadelphia 76ers played arguably the best team in the NBA with their Big 3 all absent and a smattering of other players also sidelined. It went about how you might have expected, with the Oklahoma City Thunder winning, 118-102. Blame the schedule makers for a brutal back-to-back where the Sixers felt they were best served packing it in to go full-out against the Knicks on Wednesday night, but also blame Daryl Morey for not making swift adjustments to stop this season from careening off a cliff. With all due respect to a pair of vets who had long, productive NBA careers, Philadelphia’s starting backcourt was Reggie Jackson and Eric Gordon in the year 2025. This should not be happening. Honestly, things could have been worse, as the Sixers did scrap to have it be a single-digit game during the fourth quarter, so let’s talk about some of the few bright spots for tonight’s Bell Ringer.

Justin Edwards: 25 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers

Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

Edwards has been earning more playing time in the new year, but tonight was easily the best game of the two-way player’s young career, as his 25 points, six rebounds, and four assists were all career-highs. He drained four three-pointers (even if one did bank in), and displayed some terrific shot creation chops, going off the dribble for some pull-up middies and a couple finishes at the rim. Edwards also flashed some nice reads; his cross-court pass to find Guerschon Yabusele for three was a next-level calculation. The Sixers are certainly not overflowing with guys who are a) young, and/or b) tall and rangy, so if Edwards is capable of producing on the offensive end at anything close to what we saw tonight, he should keep earning floor time.

Guerschon Yabusele: 17 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 turnover

Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

If every Sixers role player since the start of the Joel Embiid era had the fight and toughness of Guerschon Yabusele, they would have at least a Finals appearance by now. The man goes out there playing out of position for 30-plus minutes every night and absolutely battles. Alongside five offensive rebounds, Yabu had the pick-and-pop game working with three triples and met his rim-rocking quota with a hellacious dunk in the first quarter. My favorite sequence was his four points in the last six seconds of the third quarter. After he got the putback off the rebound and roared to the bench, I actually believed for a split second that the hospital Sixers could do the improbable.

Jeff Dowtin Jr.: 18 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, 1 turnover

Photo by David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images

This performance probably isn’t as much something for the Sixers to build upon going forward as our other two entries, but kudos to Jeff Dowtin Jr. for putting up a career-high 18 points. He was an efficient 7-of-14 from the field, hitting a pair of three-pointers and making some tricky finishes amongst traffic in the painted area. Dowtin’s block and feed to Edwards for three in transition cut the deficit to just five points early in the third quarter. About two minutes lately, though, it was back up to ten and that was all she wrote.