The Sixers are adapting to life without stars, and reigniting their season as a result

At the quarter mark of the season, the 76ers sit at sixth in the Eastern Conference with a 13-9 record.

They are on a pace to win 48 games, which would be the franchise’s best campaign since winning 54 games in 2022-23.

Yet the Sixers aren’t satisfied with their position. Nor should they be. Finishing sixth would mean they barely avoided a second NBA Play-In Tournament berth in three seasons.

The Sixers opened the season with aspirations of contending in a wide-open conference. Still, they can be proud of taking a three-game winning streak into Sunday night’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers at Xfinity Mobile Arena (7:30, NBCSP).

This is their first winning streak since opening the season 4-0.

“I think the biggest thing is we know how to play,” Tyrese Maxey said when asked if the Sixers are finding a rhythm. “When Joel [Embiid] plays, we know how we are going to play ... We know how we are going to play when Paul [George] plays. We know they’re not going to play every single night.

“I think that’s the best thing that happened to us, really, honestly. And I think we have to start building on that.”

» READ MORE: Sixers takeaways: Paul George steps up, Tyrese Maxey gets defensive, and more in victory over Bucks

Embiid has been limited to just eight games this season due to injuries to both knees. The 7-foot-2, 280-pound center missed two of three games in their current winning streak — Wednesday’s 121-102 home rout of the Washington Wizards and Friday’s 116-101 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum.

George has played seven games while recovering from a left knee injury and sprained right ankle. The forward sat out Thursday’s 99-98 home victory over the Golden State Warriors.

As the league’s third-leading scorer at 31.6 points per game, Maxey has carried the team most of the season.

But their winning streak is intact because less-heralded players keep stepping up.

On Friday, Quentin Grimes finished with a team-high 22 points on 7-for-9 shooting — including 6 of 7 three-pointers — to go with five assists in a reserve role.

“Quen has been great, man,” Maxey said of Grimes, who’s averaging 17 points and 4.4 assists. “I think he’s done a great job. He’s played a lot of different roles as well. He’s played off the bench. He’s started [four games]. He’s played a lot of minutes, you know what I mean? He’s done a great job.”

» READ MORE: Sixers’ Kelly Oubre is ‘trying to stay above water’ while sidelined with a ligament sprain in his left knee

The Sixers also got solid contributions from other players during their winning streak. Reserve forward Jabari Walker finished with season highs of 18 points and four three-pointers on Friday.

On Thursday, forward Dominick Barlow grabbed a season-high 14 rebounds against the Warriors. That game concluded with VJ Edgecombe scoring a go-ahead putback with 0.9 seconds left before Maxey made the game-winning block at the final buzzer.

But the Sixers must do a better job of holding onto big leads. They blew a 24-point cushion on Thursday before the late-game heroics of Edgecombe and Maxey. And on Friday, they had a commanding 26-point cushion, until the Bucks pulled within nine points with 4 minutes, 17 seconds left. But the Sixers would go on to win by 17.

“Tonight was expected,” Maxey said following Friday’s game. “This is the NBA. That was a professional win. We still won by double digits. We had to play a little bit at the end, but that’s fine. But [Thursday] night was unacceptable. We all know that was unacceptable to have a meltdown like that.

“But what I was most proud of was that we kept fighting. A lot of times, when you have that type of situation, when a team comes all the way back, you just concede defeat and let them have the dub. And it’s a different conversation right now if that happens.”

Instead, they are talking about finding ways to extend their winning streak.