No cause for alarm when it comes to the Sixers — they had a tough stretch

The 76ers are fine.

A 117-107 loss to the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night did not signal doom and gloom — not at all. There were some occasional bright spots during what marked the Sixers’ second loss in as many days after riding an eight-game winning streak.

It’s hard to beat any NBA team twice in consecutive games, especially when that team is the Indiana Pacers.

The Sixers (8-3) defeated the Pacers on Sunday at the Wells Fargo Center before falling to them Tuesday at the arena. Both games were grueling, requiring a lot of up-and-down action. Then the weary Sixers had the much-anticipated home contest against the arch-rival Celtics 24 hours later.

“I’m not going to sit here and say that I’m pleased,” said Sixers coach Nick Nurse. “But I wasn’t sitting here expecting everything was going to be a stroll in the park. I think that we’ve got everybody’s attention. Big time. We’re getting A-plus effort from everybody. And that was always going to be a tough game on the schedule tonight.

“Back-to-back, playing Indiana, who playing was always going to be tough, too. So we just keep through. There’s 82 of them.”

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Through 11 games, the Sixers are in the second place in the Eastern Conference standings. They’re one game behind the first-place Celtics (9-2) and one ahead of Pacers (7-4), who are tied with the Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat for third place.

On Wednesday, the Sixers played hard with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey both scoring 20 points. Tobias Harris, Robert Covington, and De’Anthony Melton all adding 16 points.

Unfortunately for the Sixers, though, only two bench players scored. Jaden Springer provided a lot of hustle and nine points, while Paul Reed was active around the rim, with 10 points including his first three-pointer of the season.

It also didn’t help that the Sixers were undermanned. They were minus Nicolas Batum (personal reasons) and Kelly Oubre Jr. (fractured rib) for the second and third games, respectively. But the Celtics were without two starters in All-NBA wing Jaylen Brown (non-COVID 19 illness) and standout center Kristaps Porzingis (right knee contusion).

While the Sixers were tired and shorthanded, Boston was well rested, having arrived in town on Tuesday.

But these games are tests to see what the Sixers have and what they can do with it. They have a new coaching staff with several new players. These early games provide Nurse an opportunity to see how players react in different situations.

“The last two games, we struggled [down the stretch],” Embiid said. “Tonight, I had a turnover that led to an and-one. So that was bad on my part.”

Jayson Tatum’s steal and a three-point play jump-started a 16-7 run that put the game out of reach.

“And then execution down the stretch, especially with a bunch of different skills, whether it’s them trapping me or playing the pick-and-roll with Tyrese,” Embiid said, “if we don’t have an angle or passing, I told him you just got to be more aggressive because, especially the way teams are playing, they are taking away the pocket pass. So it’s time for him to be aggressive and take advantage of that type of coverage.

“The last two games have been bad, but that doesn’t represent us,” Embiid continued. “We’re better than that.”

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The Sixers proved that they’re a competitive team while defeating Boston, 106-103, on Nov. 8 at The Center. For both teams, it’s still early in the season.

One would argue that the Sixers need all of their players to remain healthy to be competitive against elite opponents. That might be true to a certain degree.

But they do have enough depth to make up for unavailable players.

Harris played Wednesday night despite dealing with neck pain. Would it have been great to have Batum play Tatum? Yeah. But at least Covington and Marcus Morris were available to fill in.

Springer, in his most meaningful minutes of the season, did a solid job Wednesday night.

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The third-year reserve guard scored his nine points on 4-for-5 shooting to go along with two steals in 20 minutes, 10 seconds. In addition to his 16 points, Covington had six rebounds and two steals while starting his second consecutive game. Morris missed all three of his shots while failing to score off the bench.

But we know that Morris, in just his fourth game, is still trying to get his rhythm and get in shape. Embiid is still trying to get into tip-top shape.

The Sixers have enough depth to make up for minor injuries. But if anything happens to stars Embiid or Maxey, then they’re in big trouble.

When it comes to Embiid and Maxey, the scouting report seems to be “get physical with them.” The Detroit Pistons had early success when they roughed up Embiid on Friday before the Sixers prevailed, 114-106.

Pacers were successful employing the same tactic against him and Maxey on Tuesday. Indiana was determined not to let Maxey out up another 50-spot on them.

“When we first saw the schedule, honestly, we knew,” Harris said of the tough stretch. “So just get on [the plane] and get ready for Atlanta. Just get ready to get back on track. Any team you play in this amount of time … [it’s] always tough. ... But at the end of the day, our group, we fight.

“We got to keep on fighting and figure out ways to come out of these games with victories.”