According to conventional wisdom, the 20-game mark marks the first checkpoint of the NBA season.
In general, Nick Nurse concurs. According to the 76ers coach, this duration enables teams to face a range of opponents and determine whether statistics hold true after a small initial sample size.
The Sixers lost Game 19 of their series on Friday in Boston. However, as a result of the In-Season Tournament quarterfinals, this unusual four-day gap between games offers a fair opportunity to evaluate the team’s condition.
The fundamentals: The Sixers, who had a strange scheduling quirk in which they had already played the top-seeded Celtics three times (1-2), were in fourth place in the Eastern Conference as of Sunday, having finished 12-7. With 119.8 points per 100 possessions on offense and 112.7 points per 100 possessions on defense, the Sixers ranked second and fifteenth in the league, respectively. Outsiders are wondering if the Milwaukee Bucks (14-6) or the Sixers (14-6) are the second-best team in the East behind Boston (15-4), with no disrespect intended to the upstart Orlando Magic (14-6).
Beyond those figures, though, the James Harden narrative already seems to be over following his Nov. 1 trade to the Los Angeles Clippers. Implementing the new players that were acquired in that trade—especially with the new coaching staff—who did not participate in training camp with the Sixers has taken some time. Furthermore, considering the potential for multiple packaging and usage of the assets acquired in the Harden trade, the roster may still be lacking.
“We’ve learned a lot about our team,” Nurse said recently. “ … You’re kind of forming your identity of who you are and try to start fixing some things.”
Here are three things we know about the Sixers so far this season, along with three unanswered questions.
Maxey was prepared.
Tyrese Maxey was expected to succeed as a lead guard, so the Sixers had good reason to believe that. With an average of 27 points, 6.7 assists, and 4.6 rebounds while shooting 46.4% from the field, including 39.6% on three-pointers, he is on track to make his first All-Star team.
On November 12th, Maxey scored a career-high 50 points against the Indiana Pacers. Just four of his games have seen more than two turnovers, and he has four games with ten or more assists. With 16.8 fast-break points per game as of Sunday, he ranks fifth in the NBA. He is leading an offense that is purposefully picking up the pace. Additionally, he is still honing his two-man rapport with Joel Embiid, the Sixers’ current MVP, who is undoubtedly Maxey’s biggest supporter in the locker room.
But Maxey is also experiencing what it’s like to be defended like a superstar, which has contributed to his six-game losing streak after his 50-point performance. Before missing Friday’s loss in Boston due to illness, he broke out of that over the past week, averaging 30.7 points on 48.4% shooting in his last three games.
Additionally, Nurse thinks Maxey is still far from realizing his full potential, so this season and beyond, we should be able to witness his development firsthand.
Embiid is dedicated to making this happen.
Embiid declared that he wanted to concentrate on two objectives in 2023–2024 after his MVP season. Nurse was encouraging the large and powerful player to “take more swings” during blocks as they competed for defensive player of the year. The other was to act more as a facilitator for fellow players.
With a career-high 6.6 assists per game, the latter has definitely already been accomplished. He had just finished a season-high 11 assists in Monday’s rout of the Lakers, but an illness kept him out of the next two games. As part of Nurse’s offensive scheme, Embiid’s willingness to read defenses and pass, his vision of the floor from the mid-post position, and his teammates’ cutting and moving without the ball all contributed to that.
Oh, and for a team that has remained steady following the Harden incident, the still-dominant Embiid entered Sunday leading the NBA in scoring (32 points per game) in addition to averaging 11.3 rebounds and 1.9 blocks. He appears to be returning to the MVP race (along with many of the other usual suspects).
Absent Embiid? Now, it’s a problem.
In the games that Embiid has missed this season, the Sixers are 0–3. The first two were disastrous; they shot horribly in a loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on November 22nd, the second night of a back-to-back, and gave up 29 points in three quarters as they allowed them to shoot nearly 60% from the field.
On Friday in Boston, when Maxey and starting Nicolas Batum were also absent, they displayed a lot more grit. They relied on strong offensive performances from Patrick Beverley (26 points), De’Anthony Melton (21 points), and Robert Covington (18 points), as well as an aggressive defense that forced 16 steals. However, they let up late in a close game when they failed to capitalize on their two opportunities.
Three unanswered questions
What is the expected hierarchy of wings?
Ever since training camp and once more after the Harden trade, this has been a question.