NEW YORK – Sixers fans made most of the noise at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Sunday evening, and their team gave them good reason with a 129-105 pummeling of the lowly Nets.

With Joel Embiid, Paul George, Jared McCain and Dominick Barlow sidelined, the Sixers sleepwalked through one decent quarter before taking complete control, wasting little time winning a game that did not deserve to cause anyone much stress.

With most of his teammates lagging behind early, Kelly Oubre Jr. completely dominated the opening frame, and then the rest of the bunch came along. Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe got loose, Quentin Grimes had his best playmaking game of the season and Trendon Watford had the most impressive performance of his young Sixers tenure. It all coalesced into a satisfactory win for a Sixers team that is now 5-1.

Takeaways from the action in Brooklyn: 

Kelly Oubre Jr. erupts early

Many members of the Sixers started out a bit slow on Sunday evening. It is safe to say that Oubre was not one of them. The veteran wingman exploded in the first quarter, torching the Nets to the tune of 22 points on only 12 shots. Oubre made all seven of his shot attempts inside the arc; he connected from long range twice with three misses (one of which was an end-of-quarter heave of sorts).

Hoping to control the Sixers’ lethal backcourt of Maxey and Edgecombe, the Nets were willing to let Oubre cook, and the 29-year-old obliged. Oubre opened the game being defended by Nets guard Cam Thomas, regarded as one of the least impactful defensive players in the NBA. He did not even have to directly attack Thomas to score; Oubre scored the bulk of his early points either in the natural flow of the Sixers’ offense or in transition. In the final minutes of the frame, Oubre’s teammates started making a concerted effort to get him the ball, and he paid it off:

For nearly a decade, the Sixers have had star-laden rosters that generate game-long mismatches for role players. But the organization has generally surrounded its stars with supporting pieces specializing in off-ball offense, and so opposing defenses have been able to get away with hiding weak links on those players despite size disadvantages. Oubre is not a traditional role player on offense, and that does have some drawbacks.

But Oubre, for better or worse, always has a score-first mentality. One of the benefits of that is he will be eager to punish those mismatches and play weak defenders off the floor. Oubre has enjoyed tremendous success to begin his third season with the Sixers.

Tyrese Maxey’s casual brilliance

It is impossible to say enough about the basketball Maxey is playing to begin his sixth NBA season. The ease with which he is reaching strong box-score lines night in and night out is something to marvel at. Even on a night like Sunday, when the Sixers finally did not need Maxey to provide a herculean effort, he was the stabilizing force for much of the game.

Maxey was already a star-caliber offensive player, but in 2025-26 he looks like someone who has made a substantial leap in just about every facet of his game on that end of the floor.

Maxey’s playmaking and facilitating have improved quite a bit, and he has made tremendous use of a supporting cast that is a whole lot better than it was around this time last year. He has empowered players like Edgecombe and Grimes to be assertive when the ball swings their way and has also created extra scoring chances for bigs.

Meanwhile, Maxey remains a dynamic three-level scoring threat, and no player in the entire NBA can match Maxey’s combination of speed and pull-up shooting. There are a few faster players, but none of them can shoot as well as Maxey; there are some better shooters, but none of them are as fast as Maxey. It is truly a one-of-a-kind blend of abilities.

Maxey’s most significant gains might have come in terms of his foul-drawing skills, which head coach Nick Nurse said on Friday adds “variety” to his scoring. It also provides a tremendous floor in terms of baseline offensive production: even the greatest scorers will have games where they struggle to knock down shots, but the ones adept at generating whistles can always rely on trips to the line for easy points.

Odds and ends

Some additional notes:

• Nurse indicated before Sunday’s game that a formal update on Barlow (elbow) would come shortly. The two-way power forward has not played since halftime of the second game of the season after suffering an elbow laceration which required a procedure. Nurse said it is “nothing super serious,” but acknowledged that the injury is something “maybe more difficult than we thought.”

• Hours before his third appearance as a member of the Sixers, Watford received praise from his last head coach during his time with the Brooklyn Nets.

“He could post up, he could bring the ball [up], he could shoot the ball, he could pass, bigger body, he could guard multiple positions,” Nets head coach Jordi Fernández said. “He’s an overall player.”

Watford’s first doses of action with the Sixers have been hit or miss; he has at times looked the part of a player whose training camp and preseason were lost to a hamstring injury. But the vision for Watford’s fit as a 6-foot-9 ball-handler is clear. It will take time, but there is upside, and it was on display at times during Sunday’s game. Watford was particularly good during the second quarter, with his pass-first mentality paying dividends.

• Nurse went with an eight-man regular rotation in this game, and that meant both Justin Edwards and Eric Gordon were out of the mix despite the team’s absences. Edwards has struggled enormously of late, and it is becoming more difficult to justify playing him. He ended up playing in the fourth quarter of this game because Oubre turned his ankle and needed a brief trip to the locker room. But it is hard to imagine Edwards’ playing time being bolstered at any point in the near future, as George is getting closer to making a return and should eat up a significant number of wing minutes.

Up next: The Sixers’ road trip will continue with a back-to-back, as they will face the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday night with a matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers the following evening.

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