2025-26 Regular Season Bell Ringer Standings:
VJ Edgecombe – 1
Two games, two thrilling last-minute victories for your Philadelphia 76ers. After a scorching-hot shooting start to the game, it looked like the Sixers might have an easy time of it in their home opener against the Charlotte Hornets. But a third quarter that saw Charlotte drop 38 points had the Sixers down double digits entering the fourth quarter. For a second straight time to begin the season, though, Philadelphia dug deep to come back in the final frame, and when a Quentin Grimes three-pointer broke a 119-119 tie with 15 seconds remaining, the stage was set for the Sixers’ 125-121 victory. The Sixers are now 2-0 and basketball is fun again in South Philadelphia!
Let’s talk Bell Ringer.
Andre Drummond: 7 points, 13 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 0 turnovers
If a Slack channel could groan, that’s how I would describe the response in the Liberty Ballers forum to Andre Drummond checking into the game in the third quarter. Andre sure proved the haters wrong! With Joel Embiid on a minutes restriction and game one closing big man Dominick Barlow having exited the game due to an elbow laceration, Nick Nurse needed somewhere else to turn and Drummond answered the bell and then some. The Sixers come nowhere close to the comeback tonight without his 16 minutes of activity, which included the entire fourth quarter. He gobbled up all the floor boards and kept possession after possession alive with his six (!) offensive rebounds. Drum also chipped in a few put-back buckets and just generally injected a great deal of life into the proceedings. Maybe last year’s toe injury was actually the culprit for his apparent demise, because this version of Andre still has a role on this team.
Tyrese Maxey: 28 points, 6 rebounds, 9 assists, 1 block, 2 turnovers
Unlike his 40-spot in Boston, Tyrese actually had a cold stretch in the middle of tonight’s game, which is bad news for the rest of the league because he still managed to put up a huge stat line. Maxey was en fuego in the first quarter, going 4-of-6 from downtown, including an absolutely filthy stepback for the second straight game (this time rookie Kon Kneuppel was the one who looked like he got dropped off one town over). Tyrese then picked things up again in the fourth quarter, scoring or assisting on 18 points in the period, this time leveraging his speed to earn a number of trips to the free throw line (Maxey would attempt 12 free throws altogether in the fourth). Those points with the clock stopped helped the Sixers claw their way back into the game. Then, Maxey capped it all off with a contested pull-up jumper to knot things back up with a minute left, followed by the game-winning assist to Grimes. Through two games, it looks like another Maxey leap may be upon us.
Quentin Grimes: 24 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 turnovers
Grimes was part of the hot-shooting start for the Sixers, going 6-of-7 from the field, including 4-of-5 from three, before heading back to the locker room. One of those long-range bombs resulted in a four-point play, and it looked like we might be headed for one of those huge scoring nights we saw last spring when Grimes was the only gunslinger left the Sixers could dial up. Well, that wasn’t quite the case, as Quentin didn’t make a single field goal in the second half, until, of course, he made the biggest one of all. Tie game. 15 seconds left. Rise and fire from the wing to put the Sixers up three and on their way to their second win of the season.
