The nerves inside the Wells Fargo Center were real. In the opening quarter, Joel Embiid went down clutching his right knee after colliding with a Raptors defender on a screen. He left briefly for the locker room, then checked back in before the period ended.

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Chris Hine captured the mood.

“There was some nervous energy in the building with Embiid away from the floor, and it felt like an exhale among the crowd when he checked back into the game,” Hine wrote.

Embiid finished with 20 points, throwing down a pair of dunks after the scare that suggested the knee was fine. He had been upgraded from questionable to available before tipoff with a foot issue.

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Maxey takes the game over

Tyrese Maxey carried the scoring load and never let Toronto’s push close the margin, half of his 27 points coming before the interval. Jaylen Brown added 18. VJ Edgecombe flirted with a triple-double, finishing with 15 points, eight assists, eight rebounds and three steals, while Anfernee Simons dropped 17 off the bench on 5-of-6 shooting from three.

Toronto was not short of offense. RJ Barrett led the Raptors with 31 points and Immanuel Quickley added 25, according to the Associated Press. But Toronto was on the back end of a road back-to-back after blowing a 22-point lead in Boston the previous night, and still without Kawhi Leonard (knee, 10th straight game) and Scottie Barnes (groin, fourth straight).

A 3-0 record without LeBron

LeBron James sat out with a back issue, his third missed game of the season and the third Philadelphia has won without him. The 76ers are 10-3 overall even though their marquee offseason acquisition has been on the floor for only 10 of the first 13 games.

The early arithmetic is louder than the preseason skepticism. The Inquirer’s October preview framed the roster as a swing that could either be great or blow up, and NBA.com’s 2026-27 preview warned that the team’s ceiling would hinge on Embiid’s health while expecting James, who signed on in free agency, to play a secondary scoring role on a roster already stocked with options.

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The 76ers host the Indiana Pacers on Sunday.

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