Sixers Let One Slip in Chicago as Late Collapse Spoils Strong Night From Embiid
Dec 26, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid (21) goes for a loose ball against the Chicago Bulls during the first half at United Center. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images
It was a strong night for the big man in Chicago, but it ultimately ended in collapse.
Joel Embiid was labeled as questionable as early as this morning after hyperextending his knee in Tuesday’s game against the Nets. Coming into tonight’s game, the Chicago Bulls had won five of their last six and were playing much better basketball after a bad start to the season. They’ve gotten good play from Josh Giddey and Zach Collins.
Nick Nurse and the Sixers concentrated in the morning shoot-around on shutting down Giddey, who has been averaging a triple-double in the last 10 games for the Bulls, so Nurse wanted to put in a game plan to limit the damage that Giddey did against the Sixers tonight. This was going to be a key to the Sixers leaving the United Center with a win.
In the first half of tonight’s contest, the Sixers started the game on a 12-2 run, where everything was clicking early. Embiid started out strong, scoring 16 in the first half, despite having appearing to tweak his knee late in the second. Though he was wincing in pain, he stayed in the game and was a huge part of the Sixers’ ending the second on a 22-8 run.
The concerning part was that there was a lack of three-point shooting early on, and the Sixers kept shooting the ball despite limited success. They shot 1-7 from three at one point, closing out the quarter with a terrible 3-16, whereas the Bulls were 5-9 in the quarter. Paul George and Dominick Barlow grabbed important rebounds, including several clutch offensive rebounds for Barlow. Jared McCain also chipped in a very clutch 6 off the bench to help the Sixers cruise into halftime with a 53-49 lead.
The third has famously been the Achilles heel for the Sixers this year, and for once, the Sixers played a tight third with the Bulls, who played well, and matched the energy of the Sixers all quarter; the main difference was that the Sixers shot the distance shot much better in the 3rd. They went 7-14 in the third, including an arcing dagger of a three from George to close out the third.
The Bulls continued to shoot the ball well in the third as well, shooting 6-9 in the third. The defensive play of Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe played tight on Giddey, who disappeared in the third quarter. The fourth quarter was a drag race to the finish. One thing that is not talked about enough is that Chicago, despite their youth, never gives up. Both teams cooled off in the fourth from distance. Going into the last two minutes of the game, the Bulls went on a 10-2 run in which the Sixers seemed to have no answer for. In the last 2 minutes, the Sixers and Maxey went ice cold, while the Bulls only got stronger. Chicago did the little things well down the stretch, which was the difference in the game in the end.
The Bulls closed the game out with a 13-2 run, giving them a 109-102 win.
George Is Finding His Groove Again
Tonight, George played maybe his best game of the season. What was encouraging for PG tonight was that he was scoring easily from three, but also how easily he was pulling down rebounds. His 12 rebounds led the team and extended possessions, which directly led to Maxey getting himself back into the game in the second half. What will not show on the box score is that he was playing with confidence. That confidence has been building all season and culminated with tonight’s double-double, the first of the season as well.
Getting George going is going to go a long way toward getting the Sixers to the next level. In addition to the offensive play, he held down Isaac Okoro and Matas Buzelis all game. That was the most encouraging part of his game tonight, stopping the tenacious young Bulls team on defense was important to overcoming the sloppy end to the first quarter, and winning the third quarter.
There wasn’t too much of PG in the fourth, but this is to be expected for him for a bit. We’re likely going to see him more in the fourth quarter as the season goes on, but tonight, my feeling is that Nurse waited too long to bring him back in, and Chicago was already on fire when he got back into the game. As the season goes on, seeing George come in before the game gets out of hand is going to be important.
Embiid Answers Health Questions Tonight
In the second quarter, Embiid went down, grabbing his right knee after contesting, going up awkwardly trying to contest a shot, and an entire fanbase collectively held its breath. He came up limping and not running hard, but he never asked to come out of the game.
You could see his confidence growing as he played on it. Every trip up and down the court for Embiid eased the tension of Sixers fans. He shot the ball well from all over the floor in the first half, including a clutch three-pointer that started the comeback in the second.
When he came out of the locker room for the third, he was a man on a mission. He closed out the third with 27 points, and his pace did slow in the fourth; he still finished with an impressive 31 points. That, in and of itself, feels like a win, because at one point in the game, it looked like we were not going to see him in the second half at all.
If there were any questions about the grit and toughness of Embiid, tonight he answered those questions. He also made an emphatic statement that his knee is ok after that scary play against the Nets. Embiid is the difference for the Sixers, and when he’s playing like he did tonight, we’re going to see more wins than we saw tonight.
Maxey Went Cold Down The Stretch
In a back-and-forth last 4 minutes of a game, when the opposition heats up, it’s imperative that your spark plug can keep up. Tonight, Coby White took over crunch time, and the box office guards for the Sixers were not able to score to maintain pace. This is something we’re not used to seeing this season, because the fourth quarter has been where Maxey has taken games over. Tonight, that was not the case, and was a contributing factor to why the Sixers floundered in the fourth. He ended with 27, but zero down the stretch when the Sixers needed him most.
We’ve become so accustomed to seeing Maxey’s magic in the fourth that when the Bulls were starting to take over the end of the game, there was almost a calm on the Sixers bench that Maxey would put the Sixers on his back and drive the team to the win. In the final 5 possessions for the Sixers down the stretch, he handled 3 of them coming up the court. It was obvious that he was forcing the play. There is something to be said about how Billy Donovan clamped down on both Embiid and Maxey down the stretch, but we expect that Tyrese is going to be able to overcome anything late. Tonight, he was not able to, and how Maxey closes out games is how the Sixers close out games.
Not the best way to start the longest road trip of the season to this point, especially taking on the World Champion Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday, but this loss should be a solid lesson in not letting the opposition get back into games late.
Steve Hamilton
Steve may have been born in California, but don’t let that fool you. After dating a local woman and clashing with her and her family over sports for decades, he has an affinity for Philly sports. Balancing love for Philly and Bay Area sports teams may seem impossible, we can all agree that the Cowboys are the true evil.
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