The Philadelphia 76ers held on to beat the Houston Rockets in their second straight win without Joel Embiid. Tyrese Maxey proved to be too much to handle as the Sixers hung on to win, 131-127.

Maxey was nothing short of spectacular, scoring 42 points on 13-26 shooting and adding four rebounds and four assists to his final stat line. Tobias Harris tallied 22 points, seven assists, four rebounds, four steals and three blocks. Kelly Oubre Jr. contributed 13 points and shot 3-4 from deep. The Rockets got 33 points from Fred VanVleet, 30 from Jalen Green and 28 from Alperen Sengun.

The Sixers won this game mostly because of how good Maxey was but they also got some monumental performances in crunch time from some tough-minded vets. Let's jump into the film.

More like VanVl33t, amirite?

VanVleet came into this game a career 37.2-percent shooter from three-point range with a 35.2-percent clip from deep against the Sixers. In this game, he shot 8-12 from downtown. Those eight triples are a new season-high and that 66.7-percent clip ties the second-highest percentage VanVleet has ever shot in from three in a game where he attempted 10 triples.

To open the game, VanVleet took advantage of the Sixers' defensive miscommunication and drop coverage to add three points to the scoreboard a few times. Throughout the game, his chemistry with Sengun helped him get more great looks from deep.

On one play in the third quarter, Sengun screened for him away from the ball and caught Maxey ball-walking. The screen ends up not being needed but both guys are on the same page. VanVleet being so comfortable shooting well behind the arc gives him an abundance of space.

Later in the quarter, he inbounded the ball to Sengun and watched as the Sixers immediately doubled him. He quickly ran over to him — though not so close that his man could fully recover — to make the pass back to him easier.

VanVleet's off-ball awareness and range would make him a strong shooting threat with any team. But the way he and Sengun both know where he should be makes them a dynamic duo. Nick Nurse's former point guard notched 33 points and 10 assists.

Maxey's amazing finishes

Shooting 2-9 from deep was not typical of Maxey. Yet he still found a way to shoot 50 percent from the field. The road he took to get there could not have reasonably been much bumpier or tougher to travel on. He posted impressive efficiency by scoring by ripping off highlight-reel finishes time after time after time.

Pick your favorite. Did you like it when Maxey went right at Sengun for a reverse layup? He gathers the ball outward with two hands in the event that Sengun's hands are in the cookie jar but the Houston center knows better, putting them well out of Maxey's reach. The Sixers guard served the reverse layup off the glass very cleanly.

What did you think of Maxey taking on two defenders in the fast break, changing direction, double pumping in the air and scoring? Laying the ball up on the way down from a jump after seeing two defenders is not easy. To start the second quarter, he made another shot as he was going down AND got the foul he was looking for.

This one was pretty sweet. Maxey blows past his defender and scoops the layup under the arms of Sengun with a midair adjustment. Despite taking off roughly from the middle of the paint, he has plenty of balance as he juuust gets the ball up there. Sure, he could have dumped it off to Paul Reed, but this was sick.

Alright, one more. This one was from the end of the fourth quarter, where the Sixers were out of room for error. He freezes Jae'Sean Tate with a quick crossover-to-between-the-leg (a.k.a. cross tween) dribble move and blasts by him. Sengun rotates over and Maxey sees him. He launches the shot up over his outstretched arm and gets the bucket plus a foul.

Maxey is already a ridiculously fun player to watch because of his shooting and speed (on top of the palpable joy and energy he carries with him at all times. This game was one of the best of the Sixers guard's young career and was also one of the most aesthetically pleasing. It also paid off with a career-high number of trips to the free throw line in a single game (15).

Okay, fine, just one last clip. Maxey scored over a very good defender, Tari Eason, by jumping off the same-side foot as his shooting hand as he fell down and got the foul. He has to keep the ball far away to prevent it from getting blocked, so he again scoops it underhand to get it up.

Incredible stuff.

Small-ball success 

Going small against Sengun is very risky business. The Rockets center is a physical presence in the paint that hunts boards and can score over most players his size because of his soft shooting touch. The Sixers rolled the dice by playing Marcus Morris Sr. for the entire final frame with no other center. Paul Reed was fine despite three fouls and Mo Bamba was available, too. But the Sixers decided to go small the rest of the way.

With Maxey on a heater and the Sixers not loving their defense without Embiid there to protect the paint, Nick Nurse opted to go extra switchable (in theory) on defense and spaced out on offense. He switched up who guarded Sengun but the thought process was clearly to make things as easy for Maxey as possible.

The Sixers saw the downsides of going small for most of the final six-or-so minutes, starting when Sengun got into the paint and assisted Green on a wide-open triple. Then he got downhill out of a pick-and-roll, spinning and scoring while getting fouled by a helpless Morris.

Sengun got open again down low, this time dunking it home, and his gravity at the rim caused a defensive breakdown that ended with free throws for VanVleet. Tate gets open because of him, which takes Patrick Beverley's attention, which leads to VanVleet getting the ball on the move and getting past Beverley, who fouls him from behind.

But in the end, Morris made the gamble worth it. His pièce de résistance was a tough triple through a foul to put the game out too far of reach for Houston.

At the start of the sequence, Maxey has the ball up top with the Sixers going five-out. Eason is watching for the screen and Maxey tries to take advantage of the split-second he isn’t looking at him. Not only does Eason turn his head right around to see Maxey driving, but he stays with him and blocks him at the rim with perfect timing.

Beverley is right there to rebound the ball and swing it to Morris in the blink of an aye. A hasty closeout by VanVleet encroaches on the veteran forward's landing space but he drains the shot all the same.

The Sixers have benefited greatly from how Morris can, as Nurse said previously, “look you in the eye and shoot the ball.”

This wasn’t Morris' only huge bucket. In the middle of the fourth quarter, he scored a second-chance layup after corraling the offensive rebound and hit a triple less than 30 seconds later. He also made two free throws to tally 10 points in the fourth quarter, the most of any Sixer. And he wasn’t the only riser under the brightest lights of the game.

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The “Belt to A*s” tour has seen two of its best stops in the Sixers' last two games. One of many former Rockets, Beverley was huge in crunch time, posting a stat line just in the fourth quarter that would have been a fine one for him over the course of the whole game.

Beverley had three assists (and no turnovers) in the fourth, one of which was the game-sealer to Morris. The other two were these insta-dribble-handoffs with Harris and Maxey. He gives them space away from their defender, allowing them to fire a straight-away triple.

Along with two offensive rebounds, Beverley scored nine points on 3-3 shooting. Two of his points came when he was fouled after securing an offensive rebound with the Sixers in the bonus. Before hitting a catch-and-shoot corner three later in the game, he scored at the rim twice. In recent games, he has been showing an affinity for driving from the left side across the paint and scoring. The landing here isn’t pretty but he at least throws off Eason long enough to score.

Beverley loves Sixers fans and he loves them right back. A clutch performance like tonight just makes the love stronger.