Sixers weekly preview: A rematch with Cade Cunningham’s Pistons; will Paul George return in time for revenge game?

Thanks in large part to hometown hero Justin Edwards, the Sixers firmly regained momentum on Tuesday night with a thrilling late-game escape job against the rival Boston Celtics. They are 7-4 after 11 games, with a real chance to become one of the Eastern Conference’s stronger teams.

They will be tested in the coming days, with a pair of games against two of the better teams they will be jostling with for playoff positioning. One of those teams beat the Sixers in Philadelphia just days ago; the other has the best player in the entire conference.

Otherwise, the Sixers will have a rematch with a team they defeated last week and face off against a Western Conference opponent for the first time all season.

Time to preview the Sixers’ week ahead: 

@ Detroit Pistons (NBA Cup Group Play, Friday, 7:30 p.m.)

The Sixers are 0-1 with a -1 point differential in NBA Cup Group Play after losing as time expired to the Celtics on Halloween. They almost certainly have to run the table in order to qualify for the Knockout Rounds, whether it is as the winner of Group B or the wild card in the Eastern Conference. Sixers head coach Nick Nurse is probably much capable off pushing his best players any harder than he already is, but Nurse is someone who cares about the NBA Cup. Take that for what it’s worth.

The toughest game to win will be Friday’s contest in Detroit against the 10-2 Pistons, who have battled injuries and still posted the best record of any NBA team other than the Oklahoma City Thunder. Cade Cunningham and Tyrese Maxey did battle on Sunday and it was Cunningham’s Pistons who emerged victorious in the final minutes. Both teams were short-handed, and it is unclear if either one will be closer to full strength on Friday.

The constants will be the star lead guards, Maxey and Cunningham. Texans a year apart with much different frames and styles but very similar impact. On Sunday, Cunningham flushed a rough start and posted a dominant fourth quarter, scoring time and time again – and posterizing Pistons great Andre Drummond – to drag his team across the finish line. Maxey nearly outdid him, at one point intercepting a Cunningham pass and then throwing down an emphatic left-handed poster slam:

Tyrese Maxey with a tremendous read of where Cade Cunningham is going with the ball before throwing down an emphatic left-handed slam: pic.twitter.com/fr2Toj2Wis

— Adam Aaronson’s clips (@SixersAdamClips) November 10, 2025

But Maxey finished one shot short, and he is eager to make up for it on Friday. After the Sixers’ win over Boston, he was as short and to-the-point as it gets when asked about the rematch. Does it add to his anticipation for the game that his team came so close so recently?

“Yup,” Maxey said. “Yup.”

MORE: Sixers fall to Pistons in final minutes

vs. Los Angeles Clippers (Monday, 7:00 p.m.)

If there is one NBA team the Sixers and their fans should feel invested in seeing struggle, it is the Clippers, who owe the Sixers their 2028 unprotected first-round pick and 2029 top-three protected first-round pick swap rights from the James Harden trade of 2023.

So far, so good. The Clippers entered the season engulfed by a scandal; everyone has heard about Kawhi Leonard, Aspiration and allegations of salary cap circumvention by now. But they also went into the year with a roster so old that it was almost impressive. Every bit of that age has been evident during a nightmarish 3-8 start, punctuated by a disastrous day on Wednesday: Bradley Beal was ruled out for the remainder of the season due to a hip issue, then Nikola Jokić torched the Clippers to the tune of 55 points in 34 minutes.

The Clippers were terrific last year and the only major change they made was swapping Norman Powell for Beal and John Collins; Powell is having another stellar season but he is doing it for the resurgent Miami Heat. But everyone is a year older with another year of mileage under their belts, and it is painfully obvious when the Clippers are in action.

If there is one person with this game circled on their calendar, it is nine-time All-Star Paul George, whose messy departure from his hometown team last summer precipitated his arrival in Philadelphia. George received an unceremonious welcome at the Intuit Dome last November. Will George be available as he continues to work through the final stages of his return-to-play process?

vs. Toronto Raptors (Wednesday, 7:00 p.m.)

This is another rematch of a recent battle; the Sixers handled the Raptors on Saturday after a rough first quarter. It was Joel Embiid’s best game of the season; he played more minutes and scored more points than he had in any prior appearance of the 2025-26 campaign. Unfortunately for the Sixers, that was the last time Embiid has played in a game. He sat the next night on the second leg of a back-to-back, then was ruled out for Tuesday’s game due to soreness in his right knee – not the knee that has been the source of so much angst in recent years. If Embiid is back on the floor, he could pummel the same undersized Toronto frontcourt.

Joel Embiid in the Sixers’ win over Toronto on Saturday:

25:57 (most this season)
29 points (most this season)
10-16 FG
1-4 3P
8-9 FT

All of Embiid’s made baskets: pic.twitter.com/YSwWwBMh5F

— Adam Aaronson’s clips (@SixersAdamClips) November 9, 2025

But while Embiid has played the front ends of two of the Sixers’ three early-season back-to-backs, he could very well sit at home against Toronto to play on the following night. It would give him a more spaced-out schedule; early on in the year one of the Sixers’ top priorities is padding Embiid’s appearances with multiple off days.

The real star of last weekend’s Sixers-Raptors game was Trendon Watford, who paid off an insertion into the starting lineup immediately with the first triple-double of his NBA career. Full highlights from Watford’s dominant 20-17-10 night:

Trendon Watford’s first start as a member of the Sixers:

20 points (8-10 FG)
17 rebounds
10 assists

All of Watford’s made baskets against the Raptors, then all of his assists: pic.twitter.com/6B6DqNSZ37

— Adam Aaronson’s clips (@SixersAdamClips) November 9, 2025

The Raptors are currently 6-5; their most impressive performance of the season came on Nov. 4 when they beat Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks by 28 points. Speaking of…

@ Milwaukee Bucks (Thursday, 8:00 p.m.)

The Sixers will do battle with Antetokoummpo for the first time this year in a week, and the hope is that it is much more pleasant than the Sixers’ last trip to Milwaukee, when on Super Bowl Sunday Embiid admitted to ESPN reporter Lisa Salters and former head coach Doc Rivers that he expected to need another knee surgery soon and then the Sixers allowed 135 points in a loss to a Bucks team that was without Antetokoummpo.

This will be the second leg of the fourth back-to-back of the season for the Sixers, and no team in the NBA has more back-to-backs over the course of their season than the Sixers. One player who has been open and honest about the challenges that come with it: rookie VJ Edgecombe, who is proud to have logged more minutes per game than any player in the NBA other than Maxey so far this season but has acknowledged that he is learning how to handle the rigors of the NBA grind.

Nobody is more qualified to help Edgecombe than Maxey. On Tuesday night, the Sixers’ star guard discussed pieces of advice he has provided Edgecombe as he adjusts to such a demanding schedule:

Here’s me + @ginamizell asking Tyrese Maxey about advice he’s given VJ Edgecombe about getting used to the NBA grind (“he’ll be alright, he has us”) and Jared McCain about keeping his confidence during his struggles acclimating to a knee brace (“don’t think, hoop”).

Full audio: pic.twitter.com/jx5uHfjI1C

— Adam Aaronson (@SixersAdam) November 13, 2025

“He’ll be alright,” Maxey said. “He has us. We’re going to keep pushing him, and he’ll be just fine.”

MORE: Justin Edwards stays ready, and ‘the work shows’ in Sixers’ win vs. Celtics

Follow Adam on Twitter: @SixersAdam
Follow PhillyVoice on Twitter: @thephillyvoice