At NBA’s halfway mark, the Sixers sit in a solid position in the wide open Eastern Conference

SALT LAKE CITY — The 76ers are in a good spot.

That might seem disingenuous on the heels of them being thoroughly outplayed in Thursday night’s 133-114 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Wells Fargo Center. It was their worst home setback of the season, coming only six days after a 14-point home loss to the Chicago Bulls

Others may point out that the Sixers (25-16) have only played eight games with their starting lineup of Tobias Harris, P.J. Tucker, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and James Harden intact. And the team’s record in those eight games is 3-5.

In the NBA, you don’t want to jell too early. The Sixers still have 41 games left for things to take shape.

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Don’t forget about what the Boston Celtics did last season. The Celtics were 20-21 through the halfway mark before going 31-10 the rest of the regular season. Boston advanced to the NBA Finals, losing to the Golden State Warriors in six games.

So anything is possible.

The biggest thing for the Sixers is avoiding injuries that would set them back.

The second half of the season is the best time to come together, consistently play at a high level, and mount winning streaks. There’s nothing worse in NBA than a team in championship aspiration, peaking too soon.

While not ideal, the Sixers can overcome being without their starting lineup for 33 games. Nor should folks panic about their inconsistency.

If the Sixers stay healthy, they will have three months to correct things.

The coaches will have plenty of opportunities to see how Harris fits as the fourth option. They’ll have time to improve the defense and mount better efforts when Harden and Maxey are the only guards in the lineup. And they get extended looks at De’Anthony Melton as the sixth man.

White not ideal, the Sixers benefitted from other players receiving more playing time while their stars were sidelined. Shake Milton is a prime example. He developed into a key rotation player capable of stepping into a starter’s role and flourishing if needed. If not for the injuries, Milton would probably remain one of the last men off the bench.

Thanks to players like him, the Sixers still are in contention for one of the conference’s top seeds despite their health issues and lack of on-court chemistry.

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“We’ve made defensive runs during the season where we’ve been great and then had runs where we struggled,” coach Doc Rivers said. “We had stretches where we looked great. so we just want to keep improving, getting better.

“The more minutes our guys can play together, the more we can see.”

For the Sixers, the big thing moving forward is Harden and Embiid continuing to grow their All-NBA tandem. Maxey has to find his way back into the lineup, and Harris has to settle into his role.

With all that in place, the Sixers are a dangerous team. If everything comes together for them and the Sixers stay healthy, they could be tough to beat in an Eastern Conference that remains wide open.

Thursday’s loss dropped the Sixers to fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings. They are a game behind the fourth-place Cleveland Cavaliers but only two games behind the second-place Brooklyn Nets.

The Celtics improved their league-best record to 31-12 after beating the Nets on Thursday. As good as Boston has been, it is not invincible. The Celtics suffered a 33-point loss to the Thunder (19-23) on Jan. 3 and were swept by the struggling Orlando Magic last month in a two-game home series.

Brooklyn (27-14) was the NBA hottest team before Kevin Durant suffered an MCL sprain in his right knee on Jan. 8. The future Hall of Famer will be sidelined at least two weeks. We’ll find out if the Nets can survive that stretch without the league’s sixth-leading scorer (29.7 points per game).

They struggled when Durant was sidelined last season. With an improved bench, we will find out if Brooklyn is better positioned to sustain its level of play without him.

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But the Sixers are a dangerous team because of Harden.

He will be a major key in the their ability to compete with the conference’s elite teams. When he gets everyone involved, the Sixers are tough to beat. Every player on the floor feels like they’re part of the game plan.

But when Harden dominates the ball, his teammates have a tough time getting involved. That style of play has a second-round playoff ceiling. That’s why he is the key.

Embiid is going to play the same no matter what. He’s going to score a lot of points and be a good defender. But Harden will lift chemistry on the team if he delivers good shots to Harris and Maxey and provides corner threes to Tucker.

Harden played like a pass-first point guard while compiling consecutive triple-double performance against the struggling Detroit Pistons on Sunday and Tuesday. The 14th-yearplayer followed that up with 24 points and 15 assists against the Thunder but was careless with the ball, and his seven turnovers tied a season high. The Sixers are 0-3 this season when he turns the ball over that many times. A lot of Thursday’s turnovers came on forced passes or trying to be too fancy with the ball.

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It will be interesting to see how Harden plays in tight games against elite competition moving forward. Will he try to the force shots and attempt to play at the speed and level that enabled him to be the 2018 league MVP in Houston? Or will he continue to accept his distributor role and set up Embiid, Maxey, and Harris for solid scoring nights?

Harden and the Sixers have 41 games to figure things out. All things considered, they’re undoubtedly in a good spot.