This season has not gone to plan for the Philadelphia 76ers, who enter Wednesday night's matchup with the Houston Rockets at 3-13. The only team in the entire league with a worse record is the tanking Washington Wizards, who are on a 12-game losing streak.
Despite their current predicament, the Sixers are still holding out hope that this won't be a lost season.
"I mean, obviously, we're a little limited, but I think what we can control is just our effort, our energy, and just doing things a little harder, but we'll change this," Paul George told reporters on Tuesday. "We'll change this around. I'm 100% betting down on that that we'll change this. It's on us. We got to control what we can."
George won't be in the lineup against the Rockets, as he remains sidelined since hyperextending his left knee for the second time in five weeks on Nov. 20. The Sixers will also be without Joel Embiid, who is dealing with swelling in his balky left knee, and Kyle Lowry, who has a hip strain.
Injuries have been the primary culprit for the Sixers' slow start. Neither George nor Embiid was available to start the season, and they have played eight and four games, respectively. Meanwhile, Tyrese Maxey missed two weeks earlier this month with a hamstring strain and has only played 10 games himself.
With nearly a quarter of the season gone, the Sixers' new big three of Embiid, George and Maxey has only played six minutes together. The Sixers' won't start climbing the standings until all three of them get on the court together for an extended period. When, or if, that will happen remains to be seen.
These Sixers -- banged-up and taking things cautiously with their MVP-caliber player -- aren't like most teams who find themselve 10 games under .500 this early in the season. From a historical perspective, however, the outlook is not great. In NBA history, only eight teams have started a season 3-13 or worse and still made the playoffs. All of them were eliminated in the first round.
NBA teams to make playoffs after starting 3-13 or worse
| Team | Season | Start | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
2021-22 | 2-14 | Lost in first round | |
76ers | 2010-11 | 3-13 | Lost in first round |
2004-05 | 3-13 | Lost in first round | |
1996-97 | 2-14 | Lost in first round | |
1984-85 | 2-14 | Lost in first round | |
Bulls | 1976-77 | 2-14 | Lost in first round |
Bulls | 1967-68 | 1-15 | Lost in first round |
1962-63 | 3-13 | Lost in first round |
The good news for the Sixers is that the Eastern Conference is historically weak this season, and they also have the Play-In Tournament at their disposal. As bad as the first month has been, they're only 3.5 games out of a Play-In berth and 4.5 games out of a top-six spot.
That's a lot of ground to make up, but it's not insurmountable with 66 games remaining. If they can get healthy -- and that's a big if -- no one would be surprised if the Sixers were four games better than the Bulls or Pistons the rest of the way, or even five games better than the Heat. In fact, they're still favored to make the playoffs (-185 at Caesars Sportsbook as of Wednesday morning).
On that front, it's easy to understand George's optimism. But just making the playoffs was not the goal for the Sixers this season, who hoped to contend for a title. They'll need to show much, much more before anyone starts even mentioning them in those conversations again.
