VJ Edgecombe was bad, shorthanded Sixers lose to the Pistons 131-109

The Sixers lost to the Detroit Pistons 131-109 on Thursday night. And look, I know what you are thinking. Nobody expected them to win in Detroit against the number one seed in the East without Embiid, Maxey, Oubre, and George. The result is not the shocking part.

What is still genuinely hard to process is how we got here.

I spent months this season convincing myself that this was actually going to be different. That this was the year they stayed healthy. That Embiid and Maxey and George would all be on the floor together come playoff time and the Sixers would finally look like what they were supposed to look like on paper.

Yet here we are in mid-March, somehow in an even worse position than the nightmares from previous seasons. Not just missing one guy. Missing everyone. Playing a stretch run with Cameron Payne as the starter and hoping the math works out.

It is almost impressive how this franchise keeps finding new ways to do this to you.

Credit the Sixers skeleton crew for… showing up in Detroit.

Dominick Barlow was legitimately good in a mobile center role and made a real case for why Drummond does not need to see the floor again this season.

Barlow for three. 👌 pic.twitter.com/iCj3ohJaic

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) March 12, 2026

OKAY DOM. 😤 pic.twitter.com/LF7nhOPJvr

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) March 13, 2026

Justin Edwards had four steals at halftime and played the most inspired basketball he has put together all year. Cam Payne was solid. The effort was there.

Then the third quarter happened. Same story, different week. Jalen Duren took over, Duncan Robinson torched every early clock breakdown the Sixers offered, and Cunningham picked apart whatever the help defense gave him.

The same tendencies that have buried this team in third quarters all season did not disappear just because the roster is depleted.

Now about VJ Edgecombe.

The rookie had an absolute nightmare of a performance last night. Three for 14 from the field, two of those makes coming in garbage time at 110-85, at which point Nurse pulled the plug on his night entirely.

Instead of settling in and reading the game, Edgecombe played like he was trying to score six points on every possession. Rushing, forcing, handle loose all night.

Bad game to have his worst game of the season, but it was also a shorthanded road game against the best team in the East. He will be fine.

The Sixers are 35-31. The grind continues.

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