Roadkill or road warriors? The Sixers head to California dreaming of a winning streak.

Sunday's 101-100 overtime win at New York kicked off a six-game road trip. The Sixers are 11-9 away from the Wells Fargo Center.

Tobias Harris says the Sixers need to focus on their own game, and not worry about who or where they are playing.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer

by Marc Narducci

Published March 22, 2021, 12:00 p.m. ET

The 76ers had just kicked off their season-long, six-game road trip with Sunday’s hard-fought 101-100 overtime win at Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks, and Tobias Harris was asked a simple question: What does the team want to get out of this trip?

After Sunday, the real traveling began. The Sixers will face the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday in San Francisco and then have two games in Los Angeles, with the Lakers on Thursday and the Clippers on Saturday. Then it is on to Denver on March 30 before the trip ends in Cleveland on April 1.

By winning in New York, the Sixers (30-13) improved to 11-9 on the road. Last year in road games before the pandemic hit, forcing the rest of the season to be played in the bubble in Florida, the Sixers were 10-24 on the road.

So they have improved greatly away from the Wells Fargo Center.

Harris, who scored 20 points on 5-for-18 shooting but also hit two foul shots with 5.3 seconds left to give the Sixers a 101-100 lead, understands how difficult it will be on this road trip, so he has modest but necessary goals.

“I’m looking for guys stepping up,” he said. “At the end of the day, us figuring it out.”

Adding to the difficulty of this trip is the absence of four-time All-Star center Joel Embiid, who has missed the last five games because of a left-knee bone bruise. He is expected to be sidelined one or two more weeks.

“I think this road trip, without Joel, we got to find what we are going to hang out hat on, how good can we be defensively and getting different efforts from different guys,” Harris said.

Harris, who has averaged 24.5 points in the last five games with Embiid out, praised Shake Milton, who scored 28 points as a starter in Saturday’s 129-105 home win over Sacramento and then scored a team-high 21 points off the bench in Sunday’s win over the Knicks.

“I’ve got to give a shout-out to Shake. The last two games, he has been balling for us,” Harris said. “Dwight [Howard] has been as good as anybody after the All-Star break.”

The Sixers are 6-1 since the All-Star break. Howard has averaged a double-double, 10 points and 11.8 rebounds, off the bench in those seven games.

Harris says this road trip is as much about developing a mindset as having a winning streak.

“For us, we have the opportunity to really build something and grow with it right now and just being fearless,” he said. “We are going to be playing some really good teams that are going to push us, and just getting ready for playoff basketball.”

The Sixers’ Seth Curry, who missed the last two games with a sprained left ankle, will be reevaluated. His brother, seven-time All-Star Stephen Curry, has missed Golden State’s last two games as well, with a tailbone contusion. The Warriors are 1-3 without Stephen Curry in the lineup.

When the Sixers visit the Lakers, Los Angeles will be expected to be without its two All-Stars, Anthony Davis and LeBron James. Davis has missed 15 straight games with a strained right calf. The Lakers are 7-8 in those games. On Saturday, James suffered a high right-ankle sprain during the second quarter of Saturday’s 99-95 home loss to Atlanta. The Lakers then lost Sunday at Phoenix, 111-94.

On Jan. 27, the Sixers beat the Lakers, 107-106, with James and Anthony combining for 57 points.

The games against the Clippers (27-16) and Denver (25-17) are likely to be the most competitive on the trip.

Even ending in Cleveland on April 1 can’t be considered a guaranteed win. The Cavs are 2-0 this season against the Sixers.