The Sixers scored their best win of the season on Thursday night, taking out the Eastern Conference-leading Nets 110-102 in Brooklyn.

Joel Embiid went for 34 and 7, Tyrese Maxey added 25 while shooting 5-8 from three, and Georges Niang and Andre Drummond, back in the fold, chipped in 19 off the bench.

With assistant Dan Burke stepping in for Doc Rivers, who was sidelined in COVID protocol, the Sixers delivered him his first NBA win as a head coach:

These things are objectively cool to see. Just great sports moments. Dan Burke is 62 years old and started as a Portland Trail Blazers assistant in 1987. He then served as a Pacers assistant from 1997 to 2020 before coming over to Philly with Doc, and now his first win as a head coach happens to be a damn good one, a road win against Kevin Durant and James Harden.

For what it’s worth, Burke didn’t do much different than Doc Rivers would have done. How can he on short notice? He’s not installing a different offense. If you look at the possessions down the stretch, the Sixers ran that Iverson cut for Seth Curry and scored off a Maxey catch-and-shoot three stemming from a pick and roll. And he’s not turning the subbing patterns upside down overnight. They kept it close to what Doc would have done and just got good performances from a lot of players. It’s impossible to know his influence beyond that, because we can’t teleport into player brains and see how they’re feeling about performing for a different guy.

Furthermore, and I’ve said this ad nauseam this season, but you get these kinds of Joel Embiid performances and feel a renewed vigor to see the completion of a Ben Simmons trade. Daryl Morey might get a better return for Simmons in the summer, but how can you waste a season of prime Joel Embiid? The Sixers have won four of their last five to improve to 19-16 while Embiid averages 34 points and 10 rebounds. Four of those games were on the road, too, where Embiid is actually playing better. His road splits are better than his home splits. Maybe we should go back to playing in an empty Wells Fargo Center, because that’s what got the Sixers the #1 seed last season.

After the game, Embiid waved the Nets off their own floor:

And then he gave a DX chop for good measure exiting the floor.

Durant was asked about it after the game and laughed it off, which was honestly kind of refreshing to see. There’s no real bad blood here, it’s just one guy winning this round against the other guy and then the real-life equivalent of internet shit posting takes place:

Not sure if you feel the same way, but I could watch the Sixers and Nets all day long. We were deprived of a full-strength Sixers vs. full-strength Nets matchup in last year’s regular season, and then “Phila” crashed out in the second round during the playoffs, so we have not seen Philly/Brooklyn with Embiid, Durant, Harden, Tobias Harris, Kyrie Irving, and Ben Simmons on the floor together. We may never get that, and it would be a shame, because that would be a lovely experience for NBA fans and basketball junkies at large.

The trade deadline is Thursday, February 10th, so we’re a little more than five weeks away. The Sixers are sixth place in the East but only three games out of fourth, and they’ve got four of five at home against crappy teams before traveling to Miami. They play 18 games before the deadline, only seven of which are on the road. If they can go on a nice run here, Morey is gonna have a tough decision to make in February.

Happy New Year and enjoy the weekend.