Can this disastrous Sixers season be saved? At 20-34, it is hard to imagine. But with the All-Star break about to come to a close, the team appears focused on giving it a shot in hopes that consistent health can allow a late surge into the playoff picture. They will face an incredibly difficult early test, as the Boston Celtics return to Philadelphia on Thursday just 18 days after erasing a 26-point deficit to beat the Sixers in Philadelphia.
As we do every Wednesday, let's see how our friends in the national media feel about the state of the Sixers in another power ranking roundup:
NBA.com: 25 (-2 from last week)
Writer John Schuhmann lays out a flurry of ominous statistics that help quantify the extent to which this Sixers season has been nightmarish. Here's one of them:
"The Sixers are one loss from being the second team to match its total from last season (47-35). They’ve seen the league’s second biggest drops in both winning percentage and point differential per 100 possessions (-6.9). When you take the league average account, the drop-off has slightly bigger on offense (-3.6) than it's been on defense (+3.3)." [NBA.com]
It is staggering to think the Sixers will soon reach their loss total from last season with more than 25 games left on their schedule. The Sixers have had disappointing seasons during Joel Embiid's time as a superstar, but even in those years, the team won plenty of games.
MORE: Will the Sixers trade Embiid, George over the summer?
CBS Sports: 25 (-2 from last week)
The Sixers closed their pre-All-Star break schedule with games against two teams they just needed to beat: the Toronto Raptors and Brooklyn Nets. Instead, they cratered. Colin Ward-Henninger writes:
"Absolutely brutal week for the 76ers, who saw Joel Embiid inexplicably pass up a wide-open 3-pointer in the closing seconds of a home loss to the Raptors, then watched Paul George score TWO POINTS in 37 minutes in Wednesday's loss to the Nets with Embiid and Tyrese Maxey out of the lineup. This thing might be reaching the point of no return, with the Play-In looking like the ceiling after the break." [CBS Sports]
As things stand now, the Sixers are 1.5 games back of the Chicago Bulls for the No. 10 seed, which is the final spot in the Play-In Tournament. In order to clinch a playoff berth, they would need to climb to the No. 6 seed. Given they are already 8.5 games behind the Detroit Pistons, who currently occupy that spot, it is going to be just about impossible for the Sixers to do any better than nab the No. 7 seed by the time the Play-In Tournament is over.
The Athletic: 23 (no change from last week)
As Law Murray runs through the league, he pointed to an interesting All-Star weekend moment for each team. But the Sixers had none of those:
"When Paul George signed this offseason, it gave the Sixers three 2024 All-Stars. Lack of availability caused Joel Embiid to miss out in 2025, while Philadelphia’s poor record canceled a repeat bid from Tyrese Maxey, the NBA’s leading non-All-Star scorer at 27.6 points per game. George has simply declined too much as a scorer to be an All-Star, no matter how much he plays, who he plays with, or how much the Sixers win." [The Athletic]
Before the start of the season, I predicted that no Sixers would make All-NBA teams. (Some of my predictions have aged well, some have not). I would probably not have guessed that they would have zero representation in the All-Star Game, though. Maxey was the only player who had an argument of some kind by the time voting was conducted, but a brutal opening month-plus doomed him.
MORE: Sixers to sign Lonnie Walker IV
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