Don’t look now but the Sixers have turned a dire situation into a hopeful one behind their new Big Four
With Tyrese Maxey, the emergence of rookie VJ Edgecombe, and the improved health and play of Joel Embiid and Paul George, the Sixers are rising up the Eastern Conference standings.
Well, it’s not the same season it was seven weeks ago, is it?
On Nov. 26, the 76ers were in 10th place in the Eastern Conference standings with a 9-8 record. They also were a day removed from a 144-103 loss to the Orlando Magic at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
The 41-point drubbing was their worst home loss since a 135-87 drubbing at the hands of the Boston Celtics on Feb. 15, 2022. At the time, Joel Embiid missed eight consecutive games with right knee soreness. Kelly Oubre Jr. also was sidelined with a sprained left knee ligament. And Paul George had only played in three games because of left knee injury management and a sprained ankle.
Whatever their chances were of contending for a conference championship, they’re drastically improved.
In the team’s first meeting since the November rout, the Sixers defeated the Magic, 103-91, on Friday at the Kia Center. The fifth-place squad has a 21-15 record and is a half-game game behind the fourth-place Toronto Raptors entering the teams’ two-game series on Sunday and Monday at Scotiabank Arena.
Embiid is listed as questionable for Sunday’s matchup against the Raptors (23-16) with left knee injury management. Not having been cleared previously to play on back-to-back nights, Embiid is expected to miss one of the matchups in Toronto. However, his current six-game streak is the longest since playing six straight from Jan. 15-25, 2024.
Meanwhile, Oubre returned on Wednesday after missing 22 games. And now healthy and back to playing at a high level, George has shown signs of why the Sixers gave him a four-year, $211.5 million contract last summer to form a Big Three with Embiid and Tyrese Maxey.
But ...
Rookie shooting guard VJ Edgecombe has been playing so well that we might want to reconsider adding him to the group and renaming it the Big Four.
Not only are the Sixers the healthiest they’ve been in some time, but they all know and have accepted their roles, which has enabled them to thrive. And from a team culture standpoint, the Sixers have come a long way from the squad that had a well-publicized team meeting after a 106-89 road loss to the Miami Heat on Nov. 18, 2024.
In that meeting, Maxey called out Embiid for being late for team functions. Players also told coach Nick Nurse and his staff that they wanted to be coached harder. In turn, the coaches said they wanted the players to practice with purpose and attention to detail.
So far this season, things have seemed like a love fest. Players have built bonds playing video games and blossomed into each other’s biggest supporters.
On the court, Maxey, who entered Saturday as the league’s third-leading scorer at 30.7 points per game, has supplanted Embiid as the No. 1 option.
But Embiid is moving better, and George is excelling in his role. The Sixers have benefited from those things.
After starting 0-4 in games the Big Three played in this season, the Sixers have gone 5-1 with them.
“I think Tyrese is kind of always going to be like explosive and scoring, pretty much, his speed and energy,” Nurse said. “But when we get to Joel in a few situations, you know he’s either going to get a bucket or a foul for a stretch. That gives our team a lot of confidence. And you shift over and give PG the ball a couple of times, then he gets a couple of buckets. And [the opposing players] are not quite sure where you are going to hit them from. … You still have to worry about some of the other guys out there, too.”
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Nurse could be referring to Edgecombe, sixth man Quentin Grimes, and Oubre, once he regains his rhythm.
Embiid (23.5 points per game) is the team’s second-leading scorer, followed by Edgecombe (16.1), George (16.0), Oubre (14.5), and Grimes (14.5).
But now that they’re healthy, the Sixers have a chance, on paper, to be the deepest squad of Nurse’s three-year tenure.
Dominick Barlow, Jared McCain, Andre Drummond, Adem Bona, Jabari Walker, Trendon Watford, Justin Edwards, and Eric Gordon also have made solid on-court contributions.
In addition to staying on the Raptors’ heels, Friday’s victory gave the Sixers the 2-1 head-to-head tiebreaker over the Magic. That could be valuable if the Sixers and Orlando finish the season with the same record.
“It’s still early in the season,” Embiid said. “It’s kind of hard to start thinking about tie breaks and all that, but it’s good. Obviously, we’re right there with them. Our aim is to keep winning and keep climbing up the standings, and they happen to do the same thing, and if that’s needed. I guess that’s a good thing.”
But it’s even better for them that the season is not the same as it was seven weeks ago.
The Sixers have hope.