Maxey's 32-Point Masterclass Fuels Historic 29-Point Comeback as 76ers Stun Cavaliers in LeBron's Philly Debut

PHILADELPHIA — For one half, the home opener felt like a funeral. Then Tyrese Maxey turned Xfinity Mobile Arena into a madhouse.

The Philadelphia 76ers trailed the Cleveland Cavaliers by 29 points in the second quarter and 69-45 at halftime on Thursday night, booed off their own floor by a packed house that had paid around $4,000 for lower-bowl seats on the secondary market to witness LeBron James' first game in Philadelphia. What followed was the largest comeback in franchise history in the play-by-play era: a 69-37 second-half avalanche, a 15-0 fourth-quarter burst, and a 114-106 victory that lifted the league's most fascinating experiment to 2-0.

Maxey was the engine — 32 points on 12-of-23 shooting, six assists, three rebounds and two steals, plus a defensive relentlessness that flipped the game. By the fourth quarter the crowd was serenading him with chants of "MVP!" Head coach Nick Nurse did not argue. "Coming into this year, he seemed to take a level of confidence and maturity jump," Nurse said. "It just feels like he feels so sure of what he can do."

The comeback began the instant the second half did. Seventy-eight seconds after the break, James found Joel Embiid for a layup to cut it to 69-56. Maxey's layup with 5:42 left in the third pulled Philadelphia within 10, and the Sixers got as close as 84-82 before Cleveland's Mario Hezonja banked in two late shots to carry a 90-82 lead into the fourth.

Then Embiid took over. His running floater with 7:20 remaining made it 95-94. On the next trip he drilled a 15-footer — Philadelphia's first lead of the night. Jaylen Brown scored the next six points and Maxey added a bucket to cap a 15-0 surge: 104-95, and the Cavaliers never recovered. When Cleveland clawed within 106-102, Donovan Mitchell missed two free throws, and Maxey and Brown scored on consecutive trips to push the lead back to eight. Brown's dunk off a VJ Edgecombe feed with 21.1 seconds left sealed it.

Embiid finished with 24 points and seven rebounds, bullying Cleveland's bigs down the stretch — including a sequence where the Cavs switched former Sixer James Harden onto him, a matchup Embiid devoured. Brown, the summer's other blockbuster arrival, scored 10 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter to go with eight rebounds and four assists. Edgecombe added 11 points, seven rebounds and six assists in a poised two-way showing.

And then there was LeBron. The 41-year-old tossed his customary chalk into the air before tipoff, then delivered 17 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and three steals in his first game as a 76er — the biggest comeback victory of his 24-season career. James flirted with a third stint in Cleveland over the summer before signing a two-year deal with Philadelphia for the veteran minimum, and he has acknowledged Maxey was a major reason he chose the Sixers. On Thursday night, the 25-year-old repaid the compliment in full.

The evening nearly boiled over in the fourth quarter, when Maxey and Harden — teammates in Philadelphia three seasons ago — went nose-to-nose and had to be separated. Maxey never stopped coming: relentless on defense, fearless attacking the rim, the catalyst for everything.

Cleveland had looked every inch the Eastern Conference finalist in the first half. The Cavaliers opened the game on a 12-0 run, led 35-18 after one quarter and stretched the margin to 29 when they went ahead 69-40 with 1:12 left in the second. Mitchell poured in 22 of his 32 points before halftime. Philadelphia, meanwhile, shot 38.1 percent in the first quarter, committed 14 first-half turnovers and missed 11 of its 15 three-point attempts — hence the boos that chased the Sixers to the locker room.

But the second half belonged entirely to Philadelphia's defense. Cleveland managed just 37 points after the break, finished 7-of-29 from deep and turned the ball over 21 times. Mitchell added 10 rebounds but committed five turnovers and clanked the two free throws that might have saved the Cavs. Harden finished with 16 points and six turnovers. Evan Mobley added 18 points and Jarrett Allen 14 as Cleveland fell to 0-1 in its season opener.

The history books took notice. Per OptaSTATS, Philadelphia became the first team in 66 tries to erase a 20-plus-point halftime deficit and win its home opener. It was also the franchise's largest comeback since the 1997-98 season.

The broader picture is startling. Two nights earlier, the Sixers opened the season with a road win over the reigning champion Knicks. They have now beaten both of last season's Eastern Conference finalists in the first week. The hype around James' home debut was real — and the new arena lighting system that bathed the court in a blue hue on the ESPN broadcast gave the whole surreal night an appropriately strange glow.

For James, there was symmetry in the chaos. He won one of his four championships with Cleveland and nearly went back. Instead, at 41, he is chasing a fifth ring in Philadelphia — and his first home game as a Sixer ended with the building shaking.

The 76ers get no time to savor it. They host the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday and the Detroit Pistons on Sunday in a back-to-back home weekend. If Thursday was a glimpse of this superteam at full lock-in, the rest of the East has been put on notice — the hard way.