The Sixers won an odyssey of a game on Monday night at Wells Fargo Center.

In a contest that featured the ejection of Joel Embiid and plenty of officiating controversies detailed below, they cruised to a 111-106 victory over the Spurs.

Tyrese Maxey had 32 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and three steals for the Sixers, who went 10-17.

The 15-14 Spurs were led by Victor Wembanyama, who had 26 points, nine rebounds, eight blocks and four assists.

The Sixers travel to Boston and face the Celtics on Christmas. Here are observations about their very strange victory on Monday night:

A normal start…

As expected, the game revolved around Embiid and Wembanyama in the first quarter.

Embiid took the ball away from Wembanyama twice on early drive attempts. He also hit a three-pointer that gave the Sixers a 7-2 lead.

Next up for Embiid was former teammate Charles Bassey. Regardless of the Spurs’ center, the Sixers got Embiid the ball on almost every possession in the first quarter. Although he wasn’t at his best, he managed nine points in 10 minutes.

With Maxey flanked by substitutes, the Sixers struggled late in the first quarter.

The Spurs went on a 6-0 run to take a 20-19 lead, and Wembanyama turned away shots from Kyle Lowry and Caleb Martin with ridiculous ease on the Sixers’ final possession of the first. The Sixers kept challenging the 7-foot-3 phenom and kept getting rejected. Wembanyama had seven blocks with seven minutes left in the second quarter.

Embiid played chaotically in the second quarter

In the second period the game developed into absolute chaos.

Andre Drummond was assessed a technical foul with 8:13 left in the second period for pushing Wembanyama to the ground on the baseline during an out-of-bounds play. Seconds later, Wembanyama went down again, apparently because he tripped on Drummond’s foot.

Referee Jenna Schroeder saw things differently at the moment and threw Drummond out. Sixers head coach Nick Nurse was furious as he denied the call.

Upon review, officials concluded that Drummond had not committed a “hostile act” and lifted his expulsion. However, after officials initially determined that Wembanyama had flopped, they strangely removed that decision from the books as well.

There was much more drama to come.

Wembanyama negated Embiid’s third foul with 2:59 left in the second period by making a charge, and Embiid’s reaction was apoplectic.

He yelled at Schroeder and followed her across the floor before being separated by teammates and coaches near the Sixers’ bench. During this sequence he was given two technical fouls which led to his sending off.

We’ll see what crew chief Curtis Blair has to say about the officials’ decisions in the postgame pool report (and update this story at that time). They certainly didn’t maintain the cliched “control of the game” on Monday night.

Maxey comes through in the clutch

After a good month or two of controversy, the Sixers and Spurs still had a second half to go.

The Sixers started well and sank many of the jumpers they missed in the first half. A Maxey three-pointer gave them a 73-58 lead.

They opened the third quarter with Guerschon Yabusele at center and really didn’t have much of a choice. Along with Embiid’s ejection, the Sixers had to deal with the fact that Drummond was out for the rest of the night with a bruised left big toe. Additionally, KJ Martin was sidelined early in the fourth quarter due to soreness in his left foot.

Yabusele had his most productive outing in weeks, scoring 17 points on 6-for-8 shooting.

He was whistled for a dubious technical error early in the fourth quarter when Schroeder decided he hung on the rim too long after a dunk. Yabusele shook it off, faked Wembanyama the next time and then fired a kick-out pass to Maxey. He threw a corner kick to Caleb Martin that extended the Sixers’ lead to 89-79.

San Antonio took a big lead in the fourth quarter. Former Sixer Julian Champagnie started knocking down jumpers, and a three-pointer from Chris Paul pushed the Spurs to a 95-94 lead.

Down the stretch, Maxey’s clutch contributions were crucial.

He grabbed a steal and then hit a 1-1 left dunk that put the Sixers back on top. The All-Star guard missed the ensuing free throw, but Yabusele grabbed a massive offensive rebound. Maxey made it count with a hat-trick against Jeremy Sochan.

He then caught a huge defensive rebound in traffic, grabbed Paul’s miss, and pushed the Sixers to the finish line in a memorable and…unique game.