The Philadelphia 76ers' biggest game to date in the 2023-24 season ended with the right result but in the least reassuring fashion possible. Despite leading by 15 points late in the game, they were very close to letting the Boston Celtics steal the victory. The Sixers ended up holding on.

Joel Embiid scored 27 points and hunkered down on defense with four blocks. Tyrese Maxey's 25 points included 11 in the final frame to get Philly up by enough points to hang on. Tobias Harris scored 17 points and Kelly Oubre Jr. had 11 of his own. Boston's Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined for just 27 points on 10-27 shooting. Philly passed its early-season litmus test.

Let's dive into some of the most important Sixers film to date of the 2023-24 season.

5. What I learned in floating school is…

This play is at no. 5 here because it represents the amount of field goals Maxey scored in the fourth quarter. He was amazing down the stretch against a Boston team he has often struggled against. His weapon of choice: the floater.

With Kristaps Porzingis manning the middle, Maxey had a tougher time finding access to the rim. The in-between game is huge for guards, especially smaller ones. Maxey's floater is dangerous not just because of his shooting touch but because he has so many releases for it. He can get it up with a different timing, arc, launch foot and angle. It's how Lilliputians can thrive in the land of the Gullivers. (shoutout to Walt Frazier).

Starting on the halfcourt logo, Maxey takes a dribble left and then immediately heads back to the right. The snake dribble and late roll from Paul Reed get Maxey going to his strong side with some space to attack. Porzingis meets him high and White is on the block taking away a layup. Harris thought he could get a backdoor cut behind him, which isn’t a bad thought, but he would have been better served spotting up in the corner for a kickout.

Maxey was trapped in a phone booth nearly 15 feet away from the hoop. Rather than turn around, out came the red cape. He leaped off his left foot and got up a quick shot before Porzingis had the chance to get a piece of it. Shooting the ball as he squares up to the hoop is not easy. What it is, though, is a huge pair of points.

It took a deep array of floaters for Maxey to conquer the mighty Boston defense. He hit a running floater off of his left foot going left and then a runner off of his right foot on the other side before this play. He would go on to bank in a floater from the middle of the paint off of his right foot. The Sixers' guard is a star on the rise and a nightmare for defenses.

4. Dare to double

Embiid and Maxey's partnership is flourishing as they work together in various sets (or sometimes the same one over and over again) to take advantage of their spectacular scoring gravity. Late in the contest, the Sixers go back to their two-man game on the left side.

The Celtics put Jrue Holiday on Embiid as a way to take away his passing and driving lanes with Porzingis (or Al Horford) standing close by and make Embiid think twice before putting the ball on the floor. Boston willingly giving up all that size in its most important matchup didn’t come without tradeoffs, though.

Maxey starts this possession being guarded by Brown before getting the switch with Horford and taking him to the left side of the floor. He got it to Embiid in the post, who took just one dribble and looked to get to the middle of the floor with his right hand. Horford came over to help and by then, it was over. Maxey runs over to get the pass and fires away.

Understanding when defenses overcommit to Embiid and where the openings are is a huge way for Maxey (or anyone, for that matter) to get open looks. Because Maxey is such a great shooter, defenders have to think twice and be ready to scramble back out to contest him.

3. The threat of vertical space

Porzingis gave the Sixers a bunch of trouble, scoring 29 points on 10-19 shooting. Philly never let him get to the paint unattended and he made Embiid's life harder by forcing him out to the perimeter on occasion. His gravity was made apparent on a play just over three minutes into the contest.

As the Celtics go to the empty side pick-and-roll with Tatum and Porzingis, Philly switches the smaller Oubre onto the big man. Tobias Harris takes away the threat of a lob by stepping into Porzingis' path. Without Harris there, he has a lane to the hoop and no one close enough to stop him from catching the ball. Maxey sees Harris' man, Holiday, cutting and follows him. All of this leaves room for one of the NBA's best role players to come through.

Derrick White — who punishes opponents with a death-by-a-thousand-cuts style of play in which he does all the little, gritty things super well — brings in the offensive board and lays it right up. The Sixers failing to box out burned them here but they took advantage of the Celtics failing to do the same numerous times.

2. Big on the boards

Nick Nurse made a note of the Sixers' offensive rebounding after a recent game, praising them for recording 15 OREBs in consecutive games. They didn’t get there against Boston, tallying just 12, but each one of them felt like a key play.

Paul Reed had three on his own. Harris, Robert Covington and Nicolas Batum each had a pair. Buying up extra possessions gave the Sixers chances to try again. They came away with 19 second-chance points on 8-12 shooting on the night. Batum continued to endear himself to Philly with high-IQ hustle plays like this one.

After Maxey misfires on a three, Batum and Oubre are charging in from the perimeter to get where the ball might bounce. Batum is in a position to get to it and opts to tap it back outside. He may not have been aiming to get it to Oubre based on the direction and velocity the tip-out had but it ends up in his paws all the same.

That contested jumper/layup from the middle of the paint has given Oubre the chance to come away with points on busted plays. He only comes away with one point here as he gets fouled and makes just one of his free throws. But it’s an additional point for Philly and a missed chance for Boston to add any of its own.

1. The last play

The Sixers were so close to squandering this game. Had Porzingis connected on an open triple from almost straight away, he would have tied it up. Philly gifted him a great chance.

With White inbounding, Batum starts on Porzingis, Patrick Beverley is on Tatum and Harris is on Holiday. Boston's execution is a bit sloppy but the aim, it appears, is to free up Porzingis on the opposite wing. He screens for Tatum on a cut to the paint that makes it look like a lob play but he ends up screening Batum. Holiday screens him again. Of the three defenders involved in the screening actions, Harris is the only one who doesn’t switch.

Harris realizes the blown coverage and sprints to cover Porzingis. While the hustle over to a good shooter is sensible, closing out as hard as Harris does is ill-advised when Porzingis is that deep. This doesn’t run him off the three-point line. It actually allows him to run right up to it for a good look. That type of closeout for a player at that distance should be reserved for guys like Steph Curry and Damian Lillard. Porzingis blows his golden opportunity, making for a sour end to an otherwise great performance.

When asked about the play after the game, Nurse admitted that Joe Mazzulla went with a play (and inbound location) he didn’t expect.

“I was actually expecting them to take it out on the other side of the court and run something for Tatum running down the left side 'cause he loves going, running that side left. So, I was way off,” the Sixers head coach said. “They took it out on this side and they ran the play for Porzingis, so I was 0-2 on that one.”

The Sixers got the benefit of luck on this play, though they still played well enough that they should come out of this game feeling good.