Monday night in Phoenix was an opportunity for the Philadelphia 76ers to roll out their offseason star acquisition, Paul George.

During the preseason, George suffered a bone bruise on his knee. As a result, he missed multiple preseason matchups, along with the first five games of the 2024-2025 NBA season.

Heading into Monday’s game against the Phoenix Suns, the Sixers held a 1-4 record. As George’s presence took some of the pressure off Maxey, the one-time All-Star benefitted a ton from PG’s presence.

Maxey checked in for 40 minutes. During that time, he shot 12-22 from the field, with six of his makes coming from three. He ended up finishing the game with 32 points.

George, who intended to play on a minutes restriction, managed to compete for 31 minutes. He made four of his 14 shots from the field. George struggled from three after making just one of his seven attempts. He wrapped up the game with 15 points, five rebounds, and four assists. George turned the ball over seven times.

On the other side, the Suns got a huge lift from Kevin Durant, who put up 35 points in 38 minutes. Durant had the go-ahead basket for the Suns in the final seconds of the game. Although the Sixers had an opportunity to tie the game or take the lead, George took the final shot for Philly, and it ended up being an unsuccessful attempt.

The Sixers fell short with a tight loss, 118-116. With that defeat, the Sixers begin the season 1-5. They are set to pay a visit to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night for Paul George’s return to face his former team.

@RBPhillyTake: That’s a brutal loss… felt like a game you controlled in the 4th quarter, just to let it slip away in the final minutes. Didn’t like the last shot either.

@SixersJustin: At least we looked like an actual basketball team. Not going to go crazy about Paul George. He hasn’t played basketball in weeks. He’s going to be just fine. This team is going be insane with Embiid.

@GhostflowerMG: It’s really crazy how Paul George can make the sixers offense so much more fluent and effective.

@DMC_Ryan: Wow that was a heck of a Suns-Sixers game. Tight all the way through. Sixers looked like they had it with that monster Maxey game and their sizzling 3-point shooting.

https://x.com/DMC_Ryan/status/1853672554701160802

@britsdontjump: Think we need to cut PG some slack. First game back, of course his shot isn’t going to fall perfectly. If anything I thought it was a very promising performance from the #76ers until the last few minutes #MadeForThis