The Philadelphia 76ers hosted the Atlanta Hawks for their final exhibition match before the 2023-24 NBA season. Once again finding themselves in the backdrop of playoff baseball, the Sixers rode a dominant second half to a win by a final score of 120-106.

Embiid finally took the court for Nick Nurse after missing the first three preseason games. James Harden remained out and not with the team while Terquavion Smith and Filip Petrusev sat out with injuries.

Let’s jump into five takeaways from the Sixers' final preseason game.

5. Joel Embiid's debut under Nurse

At long last, Embiid got his chance to play for the coach who has given him loads of on-court troubles over the years. Nurse stressed that it was important for the big man to get some minutes on the court to get him as ready as possible for the season. He played the whole first quarter and 33 minutes overall.

Embiid shot the ball very poorly, missing his first six attempts, but the process (hehe) with which he operated on offense looked solid. Nurse said that one of the “main things” that he wanted to see out of Embiid is what he does within the flow of the offense and how he reads the defense. Even with the apparent rust, Embiid had good control in his test drive of Nurse's system.

There were not many possessions where Embiid simply had the ball near the nail or elbow and did whatever he wanted. He got into handoffs and quick passes back to Maxey and rolled to the hoop on some possessions. He was under the hoop looking to secure offensive boards, of which he notched a pair.

Defensively, Embiid did indeed set his sights on getting lots of swings at the ball, as Nurse said he wants from him. He swatted a pair of shots and even tried an ill-advised chase-down block that ended with him getting tangled up with Saddiq Bey. Nurse had him hedge and play higher up to the level and he didn’t take any plays off. When the ball got past him, he stuck with it on the trail.

Although Trae Young was able to get into the paint in the pick-and-roll, he and the lob threat he was looking to connect with (mainly Clint Capela) were met with resistance. The Sixers pinched in hard when they needed to and, while also committing some fouls, knocked the ball away plenty of times.

4. The Sixers keep the pace going

Embiid got the memo of playing at an increased tempo with Nurse, looking to find Maxey as quickly as possible after misses from Atlanta and inbounding the ball with haste.

The Sixersan as much as they could and showed their nose for the fast break on their first bucket of the game. Harris perfectly read the Hawks' play, intercepted the pass and got the ball right to Melton, who finished the play with a layup. Maxey found Melton for another transition layup off of a turnover that he caused with a behind-the-back dish.

Philly converted three first-quarter steals from Maxey into points, which was huge since the shooting from the floor was otherwise freezing cold. The Hawks ran, too, and were neck-and-neck in the transition points department with the Sixers for much of the way, ending with six more transition points.

3. Nurse's rotation begins to solidify

While the Harden ordeal complicates any semblance of consistency the Sixers want to have with their rotation, tonight's lineup decisions were worth more scrutiny than in the first three preseason games since their presumptive non-Harden main five, as well as every non-rookie on the bench, were available.

Nurse had Melton start in Harden's place, suggesting he will be the swing starter-bench player just like he was under Doc Rivers. Melton started the last game as well. He gives the starting lineup some extra 3-and-D skills as well as some athletic juice while keeping Patrick Beverley on the bench to serve as a ball-handler for the backups. Melton was Philly's high scorer with a scorching hot shooting night and used his long arms to force plenty of misses.

The first subs off the bench tonight were Kelly Oubre Jr. and Danny Green, who took out P.J. Tucker and Tobias Harris (in that order). Oubre has impressed this preseason with his shot-making, athleticism and commitment to defense. In the third quarter, Nurse busted out the Embiid-Reed pairing that everyone wanted to see. While Reed didn’t command much attention in the far corner, he did finish a reverse layup on a feed from Maxey and kept moving without the ball to make himself available.

Furkan Korkmaz also got first-quarter minutes but that could very well be because Nurse was itching to get him some minutes in his first preseason contest. It remains to be seen how big of a part he is in the Sixers' plans. Nurse also didn’t play Mo Bamba at all. Along with the fact that Petrusev played more than him previously, be on the lookout for him to be a potential roster cut.

2. Jaden Springer's confidence

This shot from Springer was not only good-looking but is one that he probably would not have taken in recent years, at least in an NBA game.

Yes, it's still just preseason but 1) it was against real rotation guys, not end-of-bench guys who will be cut to trim down the roster and 2) Springer has made seven of his eight triples in the preseason so far. That unreal efficiency won’t carry into the regular season and his volume won’t be huge but it's hard not to be impressed with the way Springer has let it fly so far.

Springer hit another catch-and-shoot look later in the game and stayed feisty on defense, sticking to his man and scrambling to contest shots everywhere. He also drew a charge. The kid has earned his minutes this preseason.

1. Maxey stuffs the assist column

The playmaking development for Maxey is a big priority for Nurse. Tonight, as his shot escaped him aside from some big triples in the fourth quarter. He made an impact with his passing, ending his night with what would have been a career-high in assists in a normal game. It took just three quarters to do it, entering the fourth quarter with a dozen dimes.

Maxey fed Melton on a pair of corner triples, got the ball ahead to Harris for an easy dunk and sparked some transition looks by speeding ahead and dumping the ball off. He's not going to replicate Harden dropping 10 dimes in his sleep but more games like this, where he functions as a guy who can get the ball where it needs to be, are surely on Nurse's wish list.

Now, the games start to count. The Sixers will kick off their season on Thursday against the Milwaukee Bucks and arguably the NBA's most dangerous duo: Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard.