Let’s get this straight before we go any further: The Philadelphia 76ers have the best record in the entire NBA. Not the best record in the East. Not the best record in the Atlantic Division. The entire National Basketball Association. Eight wins. One loss. Through nine games of the 2026-27 season, the Sixers sit at 8-1, and it is not a fluke. It is not a mirage. And the way they’re doing it is going to absolutely shock you.

But here is the most counterintuitive fact in basketball right now: a roster featuring Tyrese Maxey, Jaylen Brown, LeBron James, Joel Embiid, and VJ Edgecombe — arguably the most star-studded starting five in the Eastern Conference — ranks 24th in the NBA in points per game. Twenty-fourth. Dead last in a tier that matters.

So how are they 8-1? They’re winning ugly, they’re winning close, and they’re winning because Tyrese Maxey has discovered something that only the truly elite ever find: he owns the fourth quarter.

Maxey Is Not Just Playing Well. He’s Playing in a Different Dimension Late.

The numbers are wild. Maxey is averaging 29.6 points per game, ranking 2nd in the NBA in scoring. He is the only player in the entire league who has scored 25 or more points in every single game this season. Every. Single. One. That consistency alone is elite-tier stuff.

But the number that is genuinely jaw-dropping? His fourth-quarter points total. Through ten games, Maxey has piled up 99 fourth-quarter points — an average of 9.9 per game. The player in third place in fourth-quarter scoring per game — Memphis’s Ty Jerome — is averaging 8.6, doing so across eight games. That is not a hot streak. That is a superpower.

Look at the game log and you feel the pulse of what he is doing. He dropped 28 on the Knicks at MSG on Opening Night to set the tone. He went for 32 against Cleveland, 38 — thirty-eight — at Charlotte on Halloween night. Even in the games where the final number looks modest, like his 26-point outing against Chicago on November 2, he shot 66.7% from the field and dished out 11 assists for his first double-double of the season. The floor on Tyrese Maxey right now is a good game. The ceiling is a statement game. There is no in-between.

Eastern Conference Player of the Week in Week 1. Top 5 on the NBA.com MVP Ladder in early November. The Athletic’s Tony Jones put it plainly: “Tyrese Maxey is the Sixers’ MVP. Could he be the league’s too?”

The honest MVP answer right now is: Luka Doncic is averaging 38.5 points per game for the Lakers and is completely untouchable at the top of the ballot. But if you’re building an argument for second place, Maxey’s case — best record in the NBA, only consistent 25-plus scorer in the league, league-leading Q4 points — is airtight.

The Clutch Record That Nobody Saw Coming

Seven of Philadelphia’s eight wins came in games decided by five points or fewer in the final five minutes. Seven. That is not a team that is blowing people out. That is a team that is surviving and closing.

Their clutch record? A perfect 6-0.

Their road record? A perfect 4-0.

Basketball-Reference’s expected win-loss model, based on underlying metrics, pegs Philadelphia at 6-4. They are playing 2 wins above that projection, almost entirely because of clutch excellence. When the game is on the line in the final stretch, this team simply does not lose. And the reason is not complicated — it is Maxey, flanked by LeBron James running the chess board, with Jaylen Brown ready to step in and do exactly what he did at Detroit on November 4: drop 30 points and punctuate a road win with a clutch block that sent the NBA internet into full meltdown mode.

The sustainability questions are real. Winning this many close games is statistically hard to maintain over an 82-game season. Some regression in clutch situations is virtually inevitable. But the Sixers are not just getting lucky in close games — they have the personnel to execute in those moments, and that matters more than pure variance.

The Secret Weapon: Defense

Here is where Nick Nurse deserves his flowers. Every analyst this summer said the same thing: five high-usage offensive stars cannot coexist in a disciplined defensive system. The egos, the ISO habits, the ball-stopping — it would be a nightmare on that end of the floor. Philadelphia would live and die by their offense, and their defense would be a liability.

Nick Nurse called that bluff and laughed.

Philadelphia’s Defensive Rating sits at 103.6, which is second-best in the entire NBA, trailing only the Minnesota Timberwolves at 103.3. The offensive rating, that star-powered engine everyone was salivating over, checks in 22nd. The defense is not just holding up — it is the foundation the entire 8-1 run is built on.

The architecture of that defense makes sense when you study it. Maxey generates 1.5 to 1.8 steals per game and turns those stops directly into transition offense. Brown is a legitimately elite perimeter defender who has quietly accepted a reduced ISO role — his isolation volume has dropped sharply from his days as one of Boston’s highest-usage players, where he ranked among the league leaders in isolation attempts behind only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and James Harden. Edgecombe is a freakish athlete who routinely draws the other team’s toughest assignment. And Embiid, lighter than he has been in years, anchors the paint with the same menacing presence that has made him one of the most dominant defenders in the league when healthy.

LeBron James, meanwhile, is playing the role he was always going to play at 41 years old: elite facilitator, defensive IQ machine, and locker room anchor. He is averaging between 6.9 and 7.5 assists per game, posting 10 dimes at Indiana and 8 more at Detroit. His fingerprints are on every critical possession without him needing to be the guy who takes the shot. One TV commentator said it best during the Indiana win: “He’s like a chess player. No shots, five assists for him — and see all the other talent he has. He’s trying to fit in right now.”

The Supporting Cast Is Built Different

The offseason overhaul was aggressive, expensive, and all-in. The total payroll ballooned to approximately $207.2 million, deep in luxury tax territory. This is a franchise that looked at a 45-37 record last season, watched the New York Knicks sweep them 4-0 in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, and said: enough. Blow it up and rebuild it around Maxey as the alpha.

Brown is averaging 21.8 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game while shooting 40.9% from three. That is exactly what Philadelphia paid for — an elite secondary star who does not need the ball to thrive and can explode in moments when the team needs a bucket from someone other than Maxey.

VJ Edgecombe, in just his sophomore season, might be the most exciting development on the whole roster. The Bahamian wing is averaging 12.7 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game while shooting 44.3% from the field. He pulled down 13 rebounds in both the Milwaukee and Detroit games in the first week of the season. He is the team’s X-factor — the player who can erupt on any given night and make you forget he is only 21 years old.

Off the bench, Anfernee Simons is providing 11.3 points per game in a reserve role, shooting 39% from three. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is knocking down 46.4% of his threes and bringing championship-tested composure to a rotation that needed veteran depth behind five stars. Even Dean Wade, the under-the-radar free agent signing, quietly logged 10 assists in the Charlotte win on Halloween. The depth is real.

The Embiid Wildcard

If there is a subplot worth watching closely, it is Joel Embiid. The man shed more than 20 pounds this offseason — reports suggested he dropped 25 to 30 pounds, returning to somewhere near his rookie-year weight, with the added benefit of significantly more muscle. The result, through nine games, is a version of Embiid who has played in every single contest. After logging only 96 games across the previous three seasons combined, that alone is a minor miracle.

His averages — 19.9 points and 10.7 rebounds per game — are still dominant. His 15-rebound performance at Detroit on November 4 was vintage Embiid, controlling the paint and giving Philadelphia second-chance opportunities that turned a close game into a manageable win. His 28-point, 11-rebound, 10-assist triple-double against Milwaukee was a reminder that when he is engaged, he is still one of the most versatile offensive weapons in the entire sport.

The one flag worth monitoring: his field goal percentage sits at 38.1%. For a player of Embiid’s caliber, that number needs to climb. Some of it is the natural adjustment period that comes with integrating into an entirely new offensive ecosystem alongside four other high-usage players. Some of it is the ongoing evolution of his shot profile now that he is not the first, second, and third option every possession. Time will tell whether that number corrects itself or becomes a genuine liability in close games.

The November 10 Test: Jaylen Brown Goes Back to Boston

The schedule has been kind so far. The Sixers have beaten the Cavaliers, the Bucks, the Knicks, the Pacers, the Hornets, the Bulls, and the Pistons. Their lone loss came against Detroit earlier in the season, a defeat they avenged with a 112-106 road win on November 4. Quality wins, yes. But the elite-level tests have not arrived yet.

They arrive on November 10.

Philadelphia hosts the Boston Celtics on NBC and Peacock in prime time on Tuesday, November 10 at 8 p.m. ET, and the storyline writes itself. Jaylen Brown — who spent ten seasons in Boston from 2016 to 2026, averaging 28.7 points per game and earning All-NBA Second Team honors in 2025-26 before being traded to Philadelphia last July — comes home to face the team that dealt him. Paul George, one of Philadelphia’s departed pieces, is now playing for Boston. The Celtics sit at 7-2. The Sixers are 8-1 at the top of the East.

This is the game that will tell us something real about where this team actually stands. Not just in the Eastern Conference standings, but in the larger conversation about whether this group has what it takes to go the distance in June.

The Bottom Line on These Sixers

What is happening in Philadelphia right now is legitimately fascinating basketball. This is not a team that is running away from opponents and posting plus-20 blowout victories every other night. They are grinding. They are defending. They are winning close games because they have the most dangerous fourth-quarter player in the NBA right now closing out possessions, and they have a 41-year-old former MVP pulling all the right strings behind the scenes.

The preseason skeptics were not wrong to have questions. Five alpha scorers sharing a basketball is genuinely hard. The offensive numbers are, frankly, underwhelming for a roster this talented. The clutch win percentage will regress. Embiid’s health is never guaranteed. These are real risks.

But right now? The Philadelphia 76ers are 8-1. They are the number one seed in the Eastern Conference. They have the best record in basketball. And Tyrese Maxey — leading the entire league in fourth-quarter scoring, scoring 25 or more in every single game — is playing the best basketball of his career on the biggest stage he has ever been given.

Last year, the Knicks sent them home in four straight. This year, Philly opened the season by walking into Madison Square Garden on Opening Night and walking out with a win. The message was delivered in the first 48 minutes of the season, and it has only gotten louder since.

The Sixers are not done processing that sweep. And based on this 8-1 start, neither is Tyrese Maxey.