Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid are showing that the surprising Sixers can survive minus James Harden

With Harden out, the Sixers were expected to face a bit of a transition period. Instead, Embiid and Maxey have excelled in Nick Nurse's new offense and led a 2-1 start.

The Sixers' Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey each averaged more than 30 points in their first three games of the season.Read moreElizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer

by Keith Pompey

Published Oct. 31, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET

Just three games into the season, the 76ers have people taking notice.

The energy and toughness they’ve yearned for since the 2021-22 season has been on full display. So has the deliberate cutting to the basket, the elite shot blocking, and the emergence of Tyrese Maxey, the Eastern Conference’s player of the week.

And their high level of play, amid the James Harden saga, is surprising to some — just not to the Sixers (2-1).

“Well, we never really had any question marks,” Tobias Harris said. “We have a heck of a team. All throughout training camp, we knew how good of a team we are and can become. We know the talent level we have.

“I’ve said this from training camp, everybody has something to prove, individually, collectively as a whole team after last season.”

But being able to compete against elite teams without Harden was indeed a major question mark heading into the season.

Minus Harden, last season’s NBA assist leader (10.7 per game), the Sixers were playing without their best facilitator and second-best player.

Harden, who was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers early Tuesday, hadn’t accompanied the Sixers on their season-opening, two-game road trip. He was told to stay behind to ramp up conditioning and turned away from the team plane after missing 10 days for “personal reasons.” He also missed all four preseason games, and only participated in one scrimmage before the season.

So there had been uncertainty heading into Thursday’s 118-117 season-opening loss to the Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum.

“But we were in that locker room [afterward] like that was our game [to win] ... ,” Harris said. “I thought we went to Toronto and handled our business. And [Sunday], first back-to-back, first game in front of our crowd, to fuel off their energy and their spirit, we did a great job of just taking advantage of that energy as well.”

After posting a 114-107 road victory over the Toronto Raptors on Saturday, the Sixers routed the Blazers on Sunday night in front of sellout crowd of 19,768.

Maxey, playing point guard in place of Harden, received his first player of week award for his play during the three games. The fourth-year guard averaged 30.3 points on 50% shooting along with 6.7 rebounds and 6.3 assists. He committed only three turnovers in 116 minutes. He also made 14 of 25 three-pointers, and ranked second in the league in makes behind Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry’s 17 as of Sunday.

Joel Embiid was also a major contributor after struggling against the Bucks. The reigning league MVP has 69 points and eight blocks in the last two games.

Through three games, Embiid was fourth in the league in scoring at 31.0 points per game. Maxey was sixth. Harris, who is averaging 19.7 points, was tied for eighth in the NBA in field-goal percentage (66.7%).

As a team, the Sixers ranked first in blocks (9.3 per game) and made foul shots (24.0). They were second in foul shot attempts (30.0), fourth in field-goal percentage (50%) and three-point percentage (40.7%). The Sixers were also tied for fifth in scoring (119) and tied for 11th in assists (26.0) and steals (8.7).

Embiid likes how they played together in the first three games.

“Defensively, it’s funny,” he said. “I still don’t think we’re good enough defensively. We can be way better than what we’re showing. Blocks are good. But we still got to be able to get stops.”

Embiid believes the Sixers have a long way to go. And he’s confident they’ll get better defensively.