The best reason to believe in the 2021-22 Sixers is that they have Joel Embiid and usually win when he plays.
The team entered Monday night 27-11 with Embiid and 3-8 without him. That means a spellbinding overtime win over the excellent Grizzlies qualified as a surprise. After a night's rest, a jubilant Embiid hopped down the tunnel and on to the floor to celebrate that his teammates survived 37 points and plenty of “No way you’re topping that” shotmaking from Memphis star Ja Morant.
“Don’t count us out,” Tobias Harris said following a 31-point game. “Don’t count us out. We won’t play every game without Joel, but tonight he was able to get his rest and get back to 100 percent. But at the end of the day, we’ve got a lot of hungry guys who work on their games. ... It just shows our morale as a team. Even after the game, Joel jumping on the court with us, that’s who we are as a group.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
“That’s our chemistry, that’s the love we have for one another in the locker room. … You can see numbers and all that but team chemistry, team morale, that’s a big thing. Guys in the locker room embracing each other through wins, through losses, through ups and downs, that’s the type of group that we have.”
Harris is right that statistics don’t capture everything about a team, but we’ll note both his and the Sixers’ numbers have been very positive lately. Since a blowout loss to the Wizards in which the Sixers failed to provide Embiid much help, Harris has averaged 23.1 points on 56.1/52.4/88.5 shooting splits, 7.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.4 steals over his past seven games. The Sixers will play Washington again Wednesday and can clinch a 5-0 homestand. And, in a stretch that just so happens to date back to a Dec. 26 win over the Wizards, the team has 15 victories in its last 18 games.
Tyrese Maxey and Harris were the Sixers’ go-to guys Monday, dueling with Morant and Desmond Bane, who scored 34 points. Like Maxey, Bane is a gem from late in the first round of the 2020 draft and one of the league’s most improved players this season. He played four years at TCU and Maxey was one-and-done at Kentucky, although it’s never seemed that Maxey is doomed by inexperience. In a 33-point, eight-assist, four-block performance against Memphis, he again played with tone-setting pace, self-belief in clutch moments, and a big smile always ready to bubble to the surface.
He spoke candidly after the game about Harris, too, supporting a veteran who’s been among those guiding him through an especially tumultuous season and a half of professional basketball.
NBA
“Confidence,” Maxey said. “We all believe in him. The entire team, entire organization, we all believe in him. We know what he’s capable of. When you’re struggling, sometimes it hurts mentally, because we put so much time and so much effort into this behind closed doors that nobody sees. He’s one of our leaders and he does the same. When you’re struggling, you lean on your brothers. When you’re down, you lean on us. I think he did that, and we really appreciate him stepping up. He did his job.”
Maxey has seized the opportunity created by Ben Simmons’ gigantic absence. He’s built upon the flashes of talent and moxie he showed as a rookie and raised his three-point percentage from 30.1 to 40.1. On Tuesday morning, he was the starting point guard for a team a half-game back of first place in the Eastern Conference standings.
The irresistible likability is a great foundation for leading a group of older players, but the 21-year-old Maxey has learned a lot on the job this season. Assistant coach Sam Cassell, a perpetually chatty former point guard, dishes out in-game nuggets during stoppages, while Embiid playfully needles Maxey (and every teammate, for that matter) about being aggressive and taking open jumpers.
“I think as the season has come along, one thing that I’ve really, really, really worked on and gotten a lot better at is being more vocal,” Maxey said Saturday. “I feel like they hear me now. My teammates hear me and I feel like we have a mutual respect to where when I say something, they understand. … It’s been great. I appreciate them and they have my back.”
Maxey’s rise, Harris’ recent resurgence and the Sixers' joyful, victory-filled last five weeks are all encouraging. But any reluctance about the team remains justified. Until the Feb. 10 trade deadline passes (with or without a Simmons trade), there’s no way to know the team’s chances of climbing over the second-round playoff hurdle.
The Sixers have four pre-deadline games. The final one is next Tuesday in Philadelphia against the Suns, the defending Western Conference champions and owners of the NBA’s best record at 40-9.
Unless injuries have a major impact, Phoenix should be favored. But, if you’d like to tell yourself the Sixers have a decent shot to win any game these days, it wouldn’t sound delusional.
“Just a lot of grit,” head coach Doc Rivers said. “Guys like each other; they like playing with each other. Tonight I think our first 14 or 16 baskets were off 12 assists; we were passing to each other. It’s a good group. They like each other.”