PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers have dealt with a great deal in the 2022-23 season. They have battled through injuries to Joel Embiid, James Harden and Tyrese Maxey. Even Tobias Harris has missed a game here and there. As a result, the Sixers have often had to patch together lineups.
In Tuesday’s dominant win over the Detroit Pistons, the Sixers used their regular starting lineup for the seventh time this season. The results were good. Embiid had 36 points and 11 rebounds, Harden had a triple-double, Harris shot 6-for-6 from the floor, Tyrese Maxey had 16,and PJ Tucker knocked down a couple of corner 3s.
Now, they have to develop this unit.
“We have to,” said Embiid. “Obviously, we got to stay healthy for that. Hopefully, all of us are able to be that lucky and do that, but it’s good. When we get to the playoffs, those are the guys that are gonna be on the floor. Like I said we got a lot of talent. You can go with a bunch of multiple combinations.”
Speaking of combinations, the Sixers can go a number of ways. They turned to De’Anthony Melton and Shake Milton plenty of times out on the floor when the Sixers needed help while dealing with the injuries.
“De’Anthony was really a good starting for us,” Embiid added. “So you have a lot of options. So like I said, it’s on them to make those decisions, but you got to go out there, stay healthy play together, get everybody on the same page, and I think we know what it takes to win. We just got to go out and execute.”
As the Sixers prepare for the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday now, the focus is going to be that lineup and continuing to make sure they are all on the same page for when the game matter most in April and May.
“We’re hoping to build momentum of that,” added Harden. “Thursday, get ready for Oklahoma City, just continue to do the same thing. Stay healthy, continue to catch our rhythm, and keep building.”
The win over the Pistons on Tuesday was a dominant one, but when putting it into context, Detroit is a struggling group that was missing its top four players. There isn’t much coach Doc Rivers can take from that defensive showing.
“It’s a lineup that we’re still evaluating defensively because clearly, it’s a good offensive lineup,” said Rivers. “We know that. So if we can be a good defensive lineup as well with that lineup, it can be really good for us. Just haven’t seen it a lot and we’ve had no in-a-rows where they’ve played together six, seven, eight, nine, you know? It will be one or two and then one guy’s been out. So that was good to see. Hopefully, we can keep that going.”
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