DES MOINES, Iowa – Paul George’s scoring prowess was on display Friday night in his preseason debut with the Philadelphia 76ers.

George made 8 of 15 shots and scored a team-high 23 points in a 121-111 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

George played 26 minutes, hit four three-pointers and added six rebounds and two assists.

His exhibition debut continued a series of new faces in new locations this preseason, including Karl-Anthony Towns in New York, Chris Paul in San Antonio, DeMar DeRozan in Sacramento and Klay Thompson in Dallas.

The 76ers, who signed George to a four-year, $212 million contract as a free agent this summer, are his fourth team, after seven years with Indiana, two with Oklahoma City and the last five years as part of the LA Clippers. He was selected to the All-Stars nine times and All-NBA six times and averaged 20.8 points in his first 14 NBA seasons.

The Iowa game was a homecoming for 76ers coach Nick Nurse. The Iowa native coached Minnesota’s G League team when it was in Iowa and is the former head coach of NAIA member Grand View University in Des Moines. Nurse was the youngest college coach in the country when he took the job at age 23.

“It’s not often that you can bring an NBA team back to their old venues like this,” Nurse said, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “It’s nice that the connection between the Timberwolves and the Iowa Wolves and (Minnesota coach Chris Finch) needed a game. And we were actually looking for a couple. So it was a pretty good fit. I’m happy to be here.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.