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WASHINGTON D.C. — The Philadelphia 76ers may never lose again.
OK, that’s an overreaction. They will lose at some point — we promise. But they are playing such good basketball at this juncture of the young season that it’ll be fun to see how far they can take this winning streak.
You don’t see a win like the 76ers’ 139-134 victory over the Washington Wizards on Tuesday night very often. The Sixers trailed for much of the evening, and by as many as 19 points. They trailed by 13 points with five minutes remaining. Their defense got cooked for most of the game. A loss seemed inevitable for most of the night. And when overtime arrived at Capital One Arena, they trailed for much of that, too.
When the rally was complete, there was a little celebration. But mostly, the Sixers were fatigued. They hugged it out for a few minutes. They showered and changed into street clothes in almost record time. They talked about what they would do with a well-earned off day on Wednesday.
“That was a tough one out there,” Philadelphia head coach Nick Nurse said. “They were coming at us all game, and we just couldn’t stop them. We had to make some adjustments, and we finally were able to get a few stops. I thought they were really good, and we were fortunate to be able to pull it out.”
The 76ers have shown incredible resilience to reach this 4-0 start. They got 39 points and 10 assists from Tyrese Maxey on Tuesday. They got a tying 3-pointer from Quentin Grimes in the last minute of regulation. They got a defensive master class from Adem Bona, who blocked five shots — many of which came down the stretch. And in a game in which they failed to defend for much of the night, their defense came alive when it mattered most, surrendering just 16 points in the fourth quarter.
It was more than that, though. You don’t just rally from a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit, on the tail end of a back-to-back no less, without having some real intangibles. That’s what the Sixers have right now. They knew they didn’t defend well through the first three quarters. And they knew they had a sizable deficit they needed to overcome.
They started by setting small goals for themselves. First, they simply wanted to shave Washington’s lead to 10 points. They finally got there around the five-minute mark.
“When we did that and we saw the lead was at 10, we told ourselves in the huddle to just get two defensive stops,” Philadelphia forward Kelly Oubre Jr. said.
After that threshold, they wanted to get the deficit to 5 points, which they did with 1:46 remaining when Grimes hit a deep 3-pointer. He then sent the game to overtime with another 3.
“We said that if we got the game to 10 points, we were going to find a way to win,” Maxey said. “We got the game to 10. We found a way to win.”
This is Philly’s second 4-0 start since its 2001 NBA Finals run (the other time was in 2019-20). They won on the second night of a back-to-back, and they won when they lacked energy and lively legs throughout.
But at the risk of being a killjoy, let’s talk about some of the things that left the Sixers needing to make a comeback in three of their four wins. And not just comebacks — furious comebacks that opponents probably shouldn’t be letting happen to them. Three fourth-quarter double-figure comebacks, to be exact.
For starters, the Sixers haven’t been good in third quarters this season. Tuesday night in Washington, that was the crescendo. A lot of their struggles against the Wizards can be attributed to not having a lot of energy in their third game in four nights. But the Sixers haven’t had good third quarters in three of their four games. It’s something they know they need to fix.
Secondly, Maxey and V.J. Edgecombe are playing too many minutes. Tuesday, Maxey played 47 minutes, on the second night of a back-to-back … in October. Edgecombe played 39 minutes, 59 seconds — so, 40 minutes. Oubre played almost 44 minutes.
Nurse is in a tough position. He knows his guys are getting overextended, but because of injuries, this is what he has to do for Philadelphia to win games. It’s a hard balance to strike. Nurse has tried to steal minutes over the past two nights, inserting veteran guard Eric Gordon into the lineup. When a game is tight, however, Maxey and Edgecombe simply give the Sixers their best chance to win.
“We know that we’re still trying to figure a lot of this stuff out, and it’s tough,” Nurse said. “In a sense, we’re trying to hold the line here until some guys start to come back. When we get (Jared) McCain back, we’ll insert him into the guard rotation, and that will help manage some minutes. We’re waiting to see if we can get some other guys back. We just have to go and play as hard as we can and go from there.”
With each passing game, the Sixers are sending a message that this is a different season for them. They are a different team, in a different year. They are playing with a newfound mindset and doing so with a new brand of wide-open basketball that has produced some wild games and results. And with each passing win, the message is clear.
It’s time to take the Philadelphia 76ers seriously.
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Tony Jones is a Staff Writer at The Athletic covering the Philadelphia 76ers and the NBA. A native of the East Coast and a journalism brat as a child, he has an addiction to hip-hop music and pickup basketball, and his Twitter page has been used for occasional debates concerning Biggie and Tupac. Follow Tony on Twitter @Tjonesonthenba
