The Philadelphia 76ers are back to being a good playoff team after a disappointing 2024-25 season. Most of the attention in the Eastern Conference has been on teams such as the Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks, and the Cleveland Cavaliers. However, the Sixers aren’t a team people should overlook, especially when they are fully healthy. Oh yes, health!
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We are two-thirds of the way through the 2025-26 NBA season, and the Sixers already have a better record than they did last year. At 30-26, they are the sixth seed in the East. For the majority of the season, the Sixers have been a top-six team in the conference. However, that may change with the way the team has played as of late.
Philadelphia has struggled to find its footing since Joel Embiid went out due to an injury to the right knee and shin soreness. They have lost their last four games and are just half a game away from falling as low as the eighth seed.
On the season as a whole, Philadelphia is 11-14 when its star big man isn’t in the lineup. Their most recent loss against the New Orleans Pelicans wasn’t pretty. There aren’t many games remaining for the Sixers to figure things out.
Sixers star Tyrese Maxey has addressed the injury issue and this performance slide. He refused to sugarcoat his words when speaking to the media after the side fell 126-111 to the Pelicans.
“It’s going to take a lot,” Maxey said. “You dig ourselves a hole, only we can dig out of it. We’re in this thing together.“
“It’s gonna take a lot.”
Maxey expresses that only the team can dig themselves out of this hole. | @FultonBank pic.twitter.com/vHzTQ45xSt
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) February 22, 2026
The Sixers are also missing Paul George for the foreseeable future, and that compounds their issues. The nine-time All-Star isn’t out of the lineup due to injury like Embiid. He suffered a rather rare punishment for his use of a banned substance.
George won’t return to the court until the final weeks of the season. The offensive burden in the absence of Embiid and George shouldn’t fall solely on the shoulders of Maxey. And the Sixers did a good job at balancing that pressure in the first half against the Pelicans.
They entered halftime with an eight-point lead, in fact. However, the lack of offensive support in the second half handed the game to the Pelicans. Maxey doesn’t want this to become a trend.
“We played a really good half, and then we played a good start to the third. Then it was bombs away. We tried to swing it back, but it’s too late,” Maxey added.
The days of relying on Embiid are over. The former MVP is still an exceptional player, but his availability has shrunk even further than it once was. If the Sixers want any chance to be a competitive team in the East, they’ll need to do it by getting the unit to work together and efficiently, both on the offensive and defensive ends. This losing streak should serve as a wake-up call because it won’t get any louder than this.
