PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers are in the middle of a rough patch. They are dealing with the loss of Joel Embiid as the big fella prepares for a procedure to fix a meniscus injury in his left knee. Without Embiid, the Sixers have to find ways to turn things around.
With a 118-102 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Monday, Philadelphia has dropped six of its past seven games. The Sixers had a tough time coming up with any consistent offense without Embiid to bail them out, and they looked a little lost without their MVP leader.
Of course, Philadelphia is missing pieces other than Embiid, but the results have to change. Tobias Harris, who has been the leader of this group for a while, had a message for the group.
“First off, I think we gotta get everybody healthy,” Harris said after the loss. “Guys who have been out, hopefully, they start to make their way back into the lineup, and from there, we have the confidence that we can win. We know we can, but it’s going out there and fulfilling that and, really guys embracing this opportunity.”
With the team being so short-handed, opportunities exist for those who don’t get much playing time.
“At a certain point in time, guys are fighting for minutes to get out there,” Harris added. “Now, minutes are presented. So opportunity’s here. Let’s figure it out. Let’s embrace it and let’s roll with it. So our mentality is always to win basketball games and to go out there and play our tails off and give ourselves a perfect opportunity to win these games.”
The Sixers have the talent to win games without Embiid. It comes down to execution. Unfortunately, their margin for error is not as large as it was. It comes down to having an intense focus every single game and making sure they are at their absolute best.
“Again, we’ll figure it out,” Harris finished. “It’ll just take a moment to get it going. In the midst of a night like (Monday), we just gotta stay with it.”
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