Watch Joel Embiid score 26, 76ers knock off shorthanded Suns 112-100

What distraction to start the season? The Philadelphia 76ers are clicking in the first weeks of the season and it showed again during a Saturday matinee in Phoenix.

Tyrese Maxey started slow but finished with 22 points and and 10 assists, while Kelly Obure continues to be a steal of a pick-up and the new starter scored 25.

But it's all about Joel Embiid.

Embiid scored 26 points plus grabbed 11 rebounds and did all that in three quarters — he didn't have to set foot on the court in the fourth — as the 76ers picked up a 112-100 win on the road over the Suns.

That makes four straight wins for the 76ers.

Phoenix, again without the injured Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, were led by Kevin Durant who scored 31, but there is not enough help around him. Suns not named Durant shot 33.3% for the game, their execution was not sharp, and with that Phoenix dropped its third straight and fell to 2-4 on the young season.

Booker is being eased back from his toe injury, he played Thursday but was out today. Beal had an extensive pregame workout, according to Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic, and seems nearer a return.