{"id":514946,"date":"2026-01-14T07:09:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T07:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/514946\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T07:09:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T07:09:11","slug":"have-the-philadelphia-76ers-turned-a-corner-in-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/514946\/","title":{"rendered":"Have the Philadelphia 76ers turned a corner in January?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have the Philadelphia 76ers turned a corner in January? <\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t look now, but the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> have been playing some good basketball since the calendar flipped to 2026.<\/p>\n

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In the month of January, the Sixers have gone 5-2, which is good for the fourth-best win percentage in the entire NBA. Plus, Philadelphia\u2019s two losses in the month both came by one point in overtime in games that they probably should have won.<\/p>\n

76ers are top 5 in both offense and defense in January<\/p>\n

The Sixers have been getting it done on both ends of the floor in the new year. The have both the fifth-ranked offense and fifth-ranked defense in the league in January, and the fourth-best overall net rating, behind only the Charlotte Hornets<\/a>, Phoenix Suns<\/a> and Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> (as of Jan. 14).<\/p>\n

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Thanks to their strong play to start the year, the Sixers have climbed up to fifth in the Eastern Conference standings, and sit just a game-and-a-half behind the third-seed Boston Celtics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The play \u2013 and availability \u2013 of star center Joel Embiid has been a huge factor in Philadelphia\u2019s January success. Embiid has appeared in six of Philly\u2019s seven games in the month so far, and he even played in a stretch of six consecutive games from Dec. 30 through Jan. 9 for the Sixers. That represented the longest such stretch for Embiid in two seasons.<\/p>\n

During that stretch, Embiid started to look a lot more like his old self than he did earlier in the season. His movement and fluidity improved greatly, and it looks like his confidence in his own body did, too. The big fella said as much himself at the onset of the month.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI feel like I\u2019m getting back to myself,\u201d Embiid said<\/a>\u00a0after Philadelphia’s first game of 2026. \u201cPhysically, I think where I feel it the most is defensively. I\u2019m getting back to that level of just moving my feet, blocking shots and being that defensive presence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joel Embiid starting to look like his old self<\/p>\n

In January, Embiid is averaging 26.2 points, 8.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 33.5 minutes per performance while shooting 55 percent from the floor.<\/p>\n

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Those numbers aren\u2019t quite on par with his production from his MVP season, but he doesn\u2019t need to do that kind of heavy lifting on offense on this specific Sixers squad with Tyrese Maxey pouring in points at an absurd rate and having his own MVP-like season, and Paul George and V.J. Edgecombe providing consistent ancillary offense. Edgecombe, the No. 3 overall pick from the \u201925 draft, seemingly gets better, and more confident, with every game.<\/p>\n

Like Embiid, George also seems to be progressing well physically over the course of the campaign. He\u2019s averaging 32.5 minutes per game in January, compared to 23.0 in November, and while his stats don\u2019t jump off the page, he\u2019s provided the Sixers with a steady presence on both ends of the floor.<\/p>\n

More<\/strong>:\u00a0Joel Embiid passes former All-Star in 76ers record books<\/a><\/p>\n

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On top of looking better physically, Embiid also just seems to be enjoying basketball again. Last season was a joyless slog for everyone involved with the Sixers, Embiid included, and as he struggled to start the current campaign, it looked like Embiid was still having difficulty finding his joy. But, as his playing time and availability have ticked up, so has his mood.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia\u2019s good fortune in the health department this month extends beyond Embiid. The Sixers also recently got Kelly Oubre and Trendon Watford back from extended stints on the sideline for both players. Both guys figure to be prominent parts of the rotation moving forward for Philly, and their return provides the team with additional depth in the frontcourt and on the wing.<\/p>\n

For the first time all season, the Sixers are at full strength, or as close to full strength as an NBA team can be in January, and that has directly correlated to their recent success.<\/p>\n

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Half a month is a small sample size. The positive play \u2013 and health \u2013 will need to continue before the Sixers will be seriously considered as a contender in the conference, but they\u2019ve certainly been trending in the right direction so far this year.<\/p>\n

More Philadelphia 76ers news:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have the Philadelphia 76ers turned a corner in January? originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":514947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,3125,3118,36688,219594,3131,229907,1448,3525,2830,1311,3123,1721,167287,36689,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-514946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-boston-celtics","10":"tag-charlotte-hornets","11":"tag-joel-embiid","12":"tag-kelly-oubre","13":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","14":"tag-offense-and-defense","15":"tag-pa","16":"tag-paul-george","17":"tag-pennsylvania","18":"tag-philadelphia","19":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","20":"tag-phoenix-suns","21":"tag-trendon-watford","22":"tag-tyrese-maxey","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-united-states-of-america","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115892202490103852","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}