BOSTON – A month ago, the Philadelphia 76ers seemed like a team on their way to infamy.
After entering the season with championship aspirations, the 76ers instead found themselves sitting at an unfathomable 3-14 on Thanksgiving Day, with daily questions about whether they would be better off keeping their draft pick rather than trying to reach the postseason.
But after Wednesday’s 118-114 victory on Christmas Day over the defending champion Boston Celtics, Philadelphia has now posted wins in eight of its past 11 games, climbed out of the cellar of the Eastern Conference and boosted the team’s hopes for a deep postseason’ restarted. walk.
“We have a high ceiling,” said Joel Embiid, who twisted his ankle stepping on a guard’s foot during warmups but finished with 27 points and 9 rebounds in 31 minutes for Philadelphia (11-17). ‘It’s about us bringing it together.
“I don’t think this was close to our best basketball, but we had a pretty good opportunity. So it’s all about finding luck and staying healthy.”
There’s little luck for Embiid and the 76ers. They’ve already seen Paul George hyperextend his left knee twice in the first few months of the season, and Embiid himself is recovering from the third facial fracture he’s suffered in his career. Wednesday’s showdown with Philadelphia’s blood rivals in Boston marked only the sixth time this season that the team’s three stars – Embiid, George and Tyrese Maxey – were all available for the same game, and they have now played a total of 102 minutes together . .
However, Christmas Day became an opportunity for them to show that things might finally be turning around. Since Thanksgiving, Philadelphia, albeit against a favorable schedule, is tied for the fourth-best record in the league, behind only the Oklahoma City Thunder, New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers. That has allowed them to move within a game of the play-in spots in the Eastern Conference and within 3.5 games of the Miami Heat for sixth place, the last guaranteed playoff spot.
Against Boston, Philadelphia took care of the ball (13-to-6 edge in turnovers), didn’t miss a free throw (19-for-19), got big games from both Embiid and Maxey (33 points, 12 assists), and got a huge contribution from Caleb Martin, who returned to his role as Celtics killer after the 2023 Eastern Conference finals by going 7-for-9 from 3 for 23 points.
“I know how they’re going to go out there and guard me,” said Martin, who was repeatedly left open by Boston throughout the game. ‘I know who is going to guard me. I know what shots I’m going to get, and I have to take them no matter what.”
And while the Celtics staged a furious rally to cut what was once a 14-point Philadelphia lead to 2 in the final 10 seconds in the final minute, it wasn’t enough to overcome a lethargic defensive performance that ensured that Philadelphia there were a lot of open shots everywhere, causing the Celtics to lose for the first time this season and in three of their past four games in a row.
“I just think we came out too casual,” Celtics forward Jaylen Brown said. “I just think we walked to our spot. No one was sprinting across the floor, just hanging around, just trying to turn back and get the ball instead of just pushing it down the field and just being aggressive. I feel like we just started the game slow and they took advantage of that.”
Boston was without Jrue Holiday, who was ruled out for the game with a shoulder injury, and Kristaps Porzingis after halftime after limping with left ankle soreness in the first half. Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla had no update on his condition after the game.
The question now for Philadelphia is whether this team – after starting to dig itself out of the huge hole it created at the start of the season – can continue to pile up wins. The 76ers, who have yet to win three straight games this season, will make their fourth attempt to do so when they visit Utah on Saturday and begin a four-game West Coast trip that will include Portland, Sacramento and Golden State.
But after where things were a month ago, the 76ers are just happy to be within touching distance of the playoffs in the East again. They believe that spending some extended time together in recent weeks has played a major role in turning things around.
“Very different,” Maxey said, when asked how things feel for the 76ers now compared to a few weeks ago. “Very different. But I said it then, just give us some time. It was hard because the guys were in and out and we finally thought we were going to get everyone playing. I got hurt. That sucks. You know what I mean? I had a little rhythm and then I get hurt and then we have to start over, figure it all out. I come back, Joel gets hurt.
“I think the biggest thing we’ve really done is we’ve come together a lot more. I feel like we’ve had a lot of new guys. I don’t know how many new people we have, like seven or something like that. That, and it’s hard. You don’t know how you want to play. You don’t know which combinations fit together.