76ers scrape by Nets to keep playoff hopes alive; Quentin Grimes provides much-needed scoring

Gabriela Carroll, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Mar 14, 2026

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PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers squeaked out a 104-97 win over the Brooklyn Nets in a game they led by 28 points.

Down Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, Paul George, Kelly Oubre Jr., Andre Drummond and Johni Broome, the Sixers are hanging on by a thread to the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Here are three things we learned from Saturday’s game:

The Nets are not good

How much can you really take away from a game against the tanking Nets?

The Nets (17-50), who were missing leading scorer Michael Porter Jr., scored 31 points in the first half on 11-for-41 shooting. Entering Saturday’s game, Brooklyn sat in 13th in the Eastern Conference.

With the Sixers’ dire injury situation, this was a must-win to keep their playoff hopes alive. And yet, despite leading by as much as 28, the Nets still managed to come back and take the lead in the fourth quarter with 3 minutes, 23 seconds to play.

“The story of the game was energy, and we had a ton of it the first half,” Nick Nurse said. “They came out the second half, I thought, with a lot, and it was noticeably different, and that turned the game around.”

Since the Sixers lost Maxey, Embiid and George, they’ve struggled even against the weakest opponents — beating Utah, in 14th in the Western Conference, 106-102, and needing career-nights from much of the lineup to erase a double-digit deficit against the 11th-place Memphis Grizzlies.

It doesn’t bode well for the undermanned Sixers’ chances of treading water against quality opponents, but a win’s a win.

Grimes leads in scoring

Quentin Grimes played the best stretch of his career last season, with Maxey, Embiid and George sidelined with various injuries. He averaged a career-best 21.9 points in his stint with the Sixers as one of the team’s primary scorers.

The Sixers need him to do that again, and Grimes has answered, so far. On Saturday, he scored a game-high 28 points on 10-for-22 shooting.

The next step for Grimes is his 3-point percentage continue to climb. The Sixers struggled from behind the arc on Saturday, making just three 3-pointers (on 25 attempts), with Grimes going 1 for 6. Nurse said he wants to see Grimes keep taking six or more 3s a game, but despite the struggles from 3, Grimes found a groove in the midrange game.

“Right now, he’s got to score, right?” Nurse said. “He did what he saw today. They’re pressing him up really hard to get him inside the line. He takes off on the dribble, they’re pulling guys in to stop, he’s been pretty explosive at the rim lately. He knew that was the tier that he needed to score from today.”

A familiar situation

It’s been an up-and-down season for Justin Edwards, whose points and minutes have dip from his rookie campaign in 2024-25. But now, back in a familiar situation with many of the Sixers’ key contributors injured, Edwards, who’s long been a favorite of the coaching staff, is getting more run.

“He’s going to be a really great catch-and-shoot player at some point,” Nurse said pregame. “It’s just the mechanics and work ethic and confidence and the ball finding him.”

Edwards had 19 points on 9-for-13 shooting, plus four rebounds and two assists. He was on the floor during the Sixers’ fourth-quarter stretch and hit a critical layup to push the Sixers’ lead to three points late.