With a favorable stretch on the horizon, the Sixers are confident they can right the ship
The Sixers are set to play a softer schedule over the next 14 games, with nine of those coming against teams with losing records.
Nick Nurse and the 76ers expressed optimism following Wednesday’s session at their practice facility in Camden.
The Sixers (7-15) sit in 12th place in the Eastern Conference and will play the Indiana Pacers at 7 p.m. Friday at the Wells Fargo Center after a four-day break in the schedule. That contest jump-starts a favorable stretch of 14 games, nine of which are against teams with losing records. They’ll also face the San Antonio Spurs, who are 12-12.
After a 108-100 win over the Chicago Bulls on Sunday that marked Joel Embiid’s return from a seven-game absence, the Sixers, who’ve won four of their last five games, also will use these matchups to build cohesion.
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That process starts with getting Paul George involved. The Sixers implemented packages during Wednesday’s practice to make George more of an active participant when he plays alongside Embiid and Tyrese Maxey.
Embiid had 31 points and 12 rebounds in Sunday’s victory against the Chicago Bulls. Maxey finished with 25 points, along with career highs of 11 rebounds and 14 assists to record his first triple-double. Meanwhile, George had 12 points after averaging 25 in his previous two games.
“But there were a few combinations when they were in the two-man combination, I just think they need to do better, right?” Nurse said. “And then you can see them and say, ‘PG do this, [Embiid] do that when you two guys are working together.’
“And I think there’s some quick growth we can make there because they played together finally. Now, we can start tweaking it a little bit.”
The Sixers also believe they’ll cut down their unforced turnovers and improve their shooting from the field and the foul line.
“There are about six or seven games right now where we played pretty well,” said Nurse, whose squad has been off since Sunday because of the NBA Cup. “There’s still so much low-hanging fruit. We can get better at right now.”
Nurse also knows that this stretch presents a great opportunity to climb up the standings.
After hosting the Pacers (10-15), the Sixers will face the Charlotte Hornets (7-17) on Monday at the Spectrum Center. After that, they’ll play a home-and-away back-to-back against the Hornets and Cleveland Cavaliers, on Dec. 20 and 21.
The Sixers will return home to host the Spurs on Dec. 23 before a stretch of six straight road games against the Boston Celtics (Dec. 25), Utah Jazz (Dec. 28), Portland Trail Blazers (Dec. 30), Sacramento Kings (Jan. 1), Golden State Warriors (Jan. 2), and Brooklyn Nets (Jan. 4).
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They’ll end the stretch with a three-game homestand against the Phoenix Suns (Jan. 6), Washington Wizards (Jan. 8), and New Orleans Pelicans (Jan. 10).
The Cavs (21-4), Celtics (19-5), Golden State Warriors (14-10), and Suns (12-11) are the four teams with winning records during this stretch. Meanwhile, the Pacers, Hornets, Jazz (5-18), Blazers (8-16), Kings (12-13), Nets (10-14), Wizards (3-19), and Pelicans (5-20) are below .500.
With plenty of the season remaining, the Nets are two games ahead of the Sixers in eighth place. The Pacers, Chicago Bulls, and Detroit Pistons are 1½ games up — and those squads have tougher schedules than the Sixers through the first two weeks of January.
On top of that, the Sixers are the healthiest they’ve been this season and could pull out at least eight or nine wins during this stretch.
“We’ve been winning, too,” Guerschon Yabusele said. “So the personality [of the team] and everything has been a little bit different. But in general, we just try to stay positive, play game after game and try to figure out where we are right now.”