They needed that.
Wins and losses count the same no matter how they look. A win can be pitiful, while a loss can be highlighted by admirable effort, yet it’s +1 or -1 in the standings each time. The Sixers didn’t lose points when they barely beat the Hornets, in the same way they got nothing but a collective thumbs up from the fanbase when they nearly defeated Boston and Denver without Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid. Moral victories count for precisely nothing in the win column.
The Sixers’ game on Thursday night against the Utah Jazz was teetering between inspiring win and devastating gut punch. Everyone knows the gist by now. Philadelphia came in as losers of four straight, and roughly 90 minutes prior to tip-off, the entire fanbase had been told that Embiid once again injured his meniscus (the difference between “injury” and “tear” when it came to announcing Embiid’s injury is a whole other column altogether).
Everything was lining up for the Sixers to drop their fifth straight and complete this Sisyphean road trip. Heck, I was originally planning on writing about the road trip as the Sixers’ organizational nadir.
They were even on the brink of a classic Sixers rug pull — giving up their lead and falling behind 120-117 with just two minutes left in the game. They were about to lose despite all of Maxey’s scoring heroics, Jaden Springer stuffing Jordan Clarkson into the torture chamber for a three-minute segment in the third quarter, and Kelly Oubre going ballistic from the three-point line in the final period.
It was all going to be for nothing because the Sixers lost track of Lauri Markkanen a few too many times, and failed to get Maxey enough fourth quarter touches despite him scoring 43 points through the first three periods.
But then Maxey hit a deep, 30+ foot three when Collin Sexton didn’t get a hand up. And then Tobias Harris hunted a mismatch and drew help, while Maxey cut baseline and took away another defender, and spiritual leader Patrick Beverley hit the corner three to give the Sixers a 123-120 edge with just 37 seconds left.
There were several other bumps toward the finish line. From Oubre’s dunk attempt being changed to a no-call on John Collins, to Mo Bamba getting involved in a double tech after TNT went to break, to the Jazz petitioning for a three-shot foul with two seconds left even though Maxey had clearly been fouling Clarkson on the ground an entire two dribbles before his shot release. But they won. The Sixers, against all odds, refused to get shut out on their five-game road trip, and beat the Jazz 127-124.
There were all the reasons in the world for the Sixers to roll over and die both prior to — and during — last night’s contest. The Jazz are an extremely well-coached team and had only five fewer wins than the Sixers. Springer, Bamba, KJ Martin, Furkan Korkmaz, and Danuel House Jr. made up 50% of Nick Nurse’s rotation last night, even though he was giving them all DNP’s this season when the entire 15-man unit was healthy. The Sixers have fallen all the way down to fifth place in the Eastern Conference, and with Embiid’s availability dwindling, it seems likelier they’d fall behind the Pacers in the standings than they would catch the Knicks or the Cavs.
They were just minutes away from a 51-point Maxey game, a 28-7-5 line from Tobias, and a collective fight from the other eight players in the rotation not being enough to beat the 10th place team in the Western Conference. It’s hard to imagine the Sixers playing any better on offense in an Embiid-less game, and if that hadn’t been enough to win last night, just how bad could a prolonged absence without No. 21 look like?
But it was enough. The Sixers freaking did it.
This isn’t going to be the dream season it looked like through the first 42 games, when the Sixers were humming at 29-13 and Embiid had just dropped 70 points on San Antonio. The injuries to not just Joel, but also to the rest of the roster, have just been too much to maintain the regular season dominance they flashed early on.
Now it’s all about survival. No matter how long Embiid is out, the Sixers are not going to reach their most wins in a regular season since the 2001 NBA Finals run, nor fight for the No. 2 seed in the conference. Their mission is to stay in the top five of the East and give the big fella enough time to heal so he can be ready for the playoffs.
There are plenty of other questions to answer before that happens. Does Daryl Morey swing for a big piece at the trade deadline to raise the ceiling of this team at full health? Does Embiid look anywhere close to what he did earlier this season when/if he returns from the injury? Do guys like Tobias, Pat Bev, and Oubre have enough to be Maxey’s supporting cast and steady the ship on a team that is still just 4-9 in games without Embiid?
I don’t know the answer to any of those questions with certainty, and I doubt any of you do either. We all just have to wait.
But I do know this — what the Sixers did last night meant something. At their absolute lowest point, their 23 year-old superstar point guard honored his first ever All-Star selection by playing the best game of his young career, and the guys around him did just enough to pull out a win and stop the organizational bleeding.
It’s not going to be the dream season it looked like early on when the Sixers were 8-1 and had one of the best Net Ratings in NBA history. They just aren’t healthy enough to do that. But last night showed this Sixers team is worth sticking with, even if they still lose a whole bunch of games with Embiid sidelined.
When the Sixers needed a win most, they got it. It’s just a +1 in the win column, but that one sure felt like a whole lot more.
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