The Sixers point to chemistry as the source of their post-Christmas surge: ‘That’s the love we have for one another’

As teammates swarmed Tyrese Maxey while the Wells Fargo Center crowd went ballistic Monday night, cameras caught Joel Embiid in street clothes skipping down the hallway between the 76ers’ tunnel and locker room.

It was a brief deviation from the rest the Sixers’ star big man was supposed to receive after playing 21 consecutive games. Embiid’s joy erupted after arguably his team’s most impressive win of the season, beating the streaking Memphis Grizzlies, 122-119, in overtime, without their MVP contender, on a night Ja Morant dazzled with a barrage of creative and athletic finishes. And Embiid’s immediate desire to join his teammates in celebration offered a glimpse of the chemistry the Sixers have built during their 15-3 surge since Christmas.

“We got a group that likes playing together,” coach Doc Rivers said. “We got a group that believes they can win together, no matter who’s on the floor. … I always say, from a coaching standpoint, if you have cooperation, you have a chance to be very successful. And when you don’t have it, you have a chance not to be.

“I think this group cooperates with each other.”

» READ MORE: Tyrese Maxey did something Ben Simmons has never done. Now he’s altering the Sixers’ trade deadline outlook | David Murphy

Rivers and his players have insisted since training camp that their camaraderie — an intangible quality that is difficult to measure or assign value to — has been strong. It was easy for an outsider to raise a skeptical eyebrow at such a declaration last fall at their practice facility as the Ben Simmons saga hovered, then exploded when Rivers dismissed him from practice for not being engaged in a defensive drill the day before the season opener. Yet the Sixers began the season 8-2 before becoming the NBA’s first team smacked by a COVID outbreak, then muddled through much of November and December and are now streaking into February.

Backup center Andre Drummond, a 10-year veteran who has mostly played on mediocre-to-poor teams before joining the Sixers this season, called the dynamic between his current teammates “night and day from what I’ve been used to.” Everybody from Embiid to two-way players Charlie Brown Jr. and Myles Powell has needed to contribute at some point during a season filled with roster instability because of injuries and health and safety protocols. Perhaps even more important, Drummond said, is they can all engage in difficult conversations “without people getting in their feelings.”

“I harp on this a lot, just about the character and the guys that we have on this team and how much we really enjoy being on the same team with each other,” Drummond said following a Jan. 10 victory at Houston. “It’s easy to be with these guys and it’s easy to figure things out. … It’s rare to find that with teams.”

The personalities populating the locker room make those interactions possible. Maxey is a contagious blend of vivacious and fearless. Veterans Tobias Harris and Danny Green are steady and thoughtful. Role players Matisse Thybulle and Georges Niang bring palpable energy. And a constant theme this season has been Embiid’s uptick in leadership, from organizing a team dinner in New Orleans the night before the season opener to telling Drummond he needed to step up against the Grizzlies. Embiid’s teammates, meanwhile, have embraced the waves of attention he has received during his historically dominant stretch, even joining in on the marveling.

“He’s our MVP,” Maxey said after Monday’s win.

A cynic — or realist — would suggest that winning creates the good vibes, not the other way around. With a 31-19 record, the Sixers have ascended to third place in a tightly packed Eastern Conference and were a half-game out of the top spot entering Tuesday. Yet they have also immediately responded after defeat; they have not lost consecutive games since dropping three in a row against Memphis, Miami and Brooklyn in mid-December.

» READ MORE: ‘This is my guy’: Why Charlie Brown Jr.’s shot with the Sixers is special for Jameer Nelson

After a bad Jan. 12 home loss to Charlotte that snapped a seven-game winning streak left Embiid feeling “[ticked] off … because that performance didn’t represent us,” the Sixers won both games of a challenging home-road back-to-back against Boston and Miami. Following a flat effort in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day matinee defeat at Washington, Embiid ripped off 50 points in 27 minutes in a victory over Orlando. And since blowing a 24-point second-half lead in a Jan. 21 loss to the Clippers, the Sixers have won five in a row — including a 4-0 mark on this homestand so far that has recaptured some of the Wells Fargo Center magic that had been missing earlier this season.

That the Sixers totaled 12 assists on their first 15 field goals against the Grizzlies offered more concrete evidence of their togetherness, Rivers said. The coach added the early-season roster roulette means the staff now has a better feel of lineup combinations that will work together on the floor, and how their playing style can change without Embiid.

Yet perhaps more revealing was the Sixers’ composure displayed during the in-game moments of adversity. In the final minute of regulation, Drummond fumbled a ball out of bounds with a wide-open look at the tie-breaking basket, before Maxey missed a free throw. Rivers then picked up a technical during a frenzied finish because he believed Seth Curry was fouled on a shot attempt at the buzzer, putting his team in a rare one-point hole to start overtime.

“When [we got in the huddle], we were all just, ‘My bad,’ ‘My bad,’ ‘My bad,’” Harris said. “But it was just like, ‘It’s over. That play is done. Just be in the present moment right now. Let’s get a stop. Let’s control what we can control and let’s keep it rolling.’ We can’t dwell on the past there, so I just think that mentality helped us all throughout. …

“Last play of regulation, that was hard for us. But at the end of the day, we just said, ‘We have five minutes right now. Let’s figure it out and let’s get this win.’”

As Maxey darted toward the basket to lay the ball in during those final victorious seconds, he acknowledged he was too exhausted to elevate for the dunk. No matter. The otherwise-resting Embiid skipped for joy enough for them both — and that reaction epitomized more than one thrilling late-January victory over a formidable opponent.

“That’s just who we are as a group,” Harris said. “That’s our chemistry. That’s the love we have for one another in the locker room. … You can see numbers and all that, but team chemistry, team morale, that’s a big thing.

“Guys in the locker room embracing each other — through wins, through losses, through ups and downs — that’s the type of group that we are.”