The Philadelphia 76ers are 20-32 and 11th in the Eastern Conference. They’ve lost their last three games, including a defeat at the hands of the Cade Cunningham-less Detroit Pistons last Friday that coach Nick Nurse described as “inexcusable” and that saw them trail by as many as 34 points. Joel Embiid is back on the court, but his troublesome left knee is still in the headlines — on Sunday, after ESPN’s Lisa Salters reported that he anticipates having another surgery on his knee, he said that “we’re looking at every option” and, if the injury “gets worse, then you’ve got to do something about it.”
In theory, though, Philadelphia can still salvage the 2024-25 season. Tyrese Maxey has been stellar lately, and after a 15-game absence, Embiid has looked more like himself. Paul George recently returned from a five-game absence due to a finger injury, too, so the team’s Big Three can finally start to build some chemistry. In New Orleans, ahead of the Philadelphia Eagles’ Super Bowl victory, two of the Sixers’ owners told the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Gabriela Carroll that they see good things coming for the franchise that has been much less charmed than the football team in town.
“Listen, we got Joel [healthy],” majority owner Josh Harris told the Inquirer. “When Joel, Tyrese and Paul are all on the court, we are a great team. So we got to keep everyone healthy. In particular, Joel is a warrior. I know he’s fighting through some stuff, and I’m really optimistic that we are going to make a playoff run now.”
David Adelman, a minority owner, went a step further: “I think when this team is healthy, we can beat everybody in the East.”
Adelman added that the Sixers are “realistic” about the path ahead being difficult, but “this team still has fight in them.”
These comments jibe with the optimistic tone that team president Daryl Morey took at his press conference in Philadelphia last Friday.
“We’re going to have to fight to probably get into the playoffs, and then we’re going to have to fight to beat a very good team in the first round,” Morey told reporters, “but we feel like we would’ve had to play that team at some point to win the title anyway. And we’re just focused on [winning a] championship, and I know you have to squint a little, but we feel like this group can still do that.”
Adelman also echoed Morey’s enthusiasm about wing Quentin Grimes, the wing Philadelphia acquired from the Dallas Mavericks just before last Thursday’s trade deadline. “We really think that Grimes is going to be a great fit for us with Maxey,” Adelman told the Inquirer.
“My message to Sixers fans is it’s been a tough season and we’re all in this together,” Harris said. “We feel it. And we’re all working really hard to make it better. And thank you for supporting us.”
With 30 games remaining in the regular season, there is time for the Sixers to get their act together, given that they’re only 1.5 games behind the 10th-place Chicago Bulls for the final play-in spot in the East. (They are 4.5 games behind the ninth-place Atlanta Hawks and 6.5games behind the sixth-place Detroit Pistons.) If they are indeed going to make a real run, though, they need to start stringing some wins together games soon.
Before the All-Star break, Philadelphia will host the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday and visit the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday. After the break, it’ll have a tougher schedule: vs. Boston, vs. Brooklyn, vs. Chicago, at New York, vs. Golden State, vs. Portland, at Minnesota, at Boston.
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