NEW YORK — The 76ers’ record at this stage of the season is a long way away from last year’s mark.
Through 53 games a season ago, they were 32-21 and in fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings. Fast forward to Wednesday and the Sixers take a 20-33 record and 11th-place standing into their matchup against the Brooklyn Nets at the Barclays Center.
To put this season’s decline in perspective, their 32-21 mark last season was tied for the Sixers’ worst record at this stage since going 28-25 during the 2017-18 campaign.
But these Sixers would love to be 11 games above .500. At 13 games below .500, they are in jeopardy of snapping a string of seven consecutive postseason appearances.
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A lot of this season’s struggles are linked to a lack of continuity created by injuries, most notably to Joel Embiid, who will also miss Wednesday’s game. Point guard Tyrese Maxey (right knee contusion), reserve shooting guard Eric Gordon (sprained right wrist) and reserve point guard Kyle Lowry (right hip injury management) are also sidelined.
But for Embiid (left knee injury management), this marks the 37th game he’ll miss this season because of various injuries. The Sixers will try to break their four-game losing streak without him.
“I know I went through The Process years … I wasn’t really playing back then, but this year has probably been the toughest as far as finding that consistency and health,” Embiid said. “So [we’ve] just got to keep focusing on ourselves, try to get better every single day, and take it one day at a time.”
The Sixers selected Embiid with the third pick in the 2014 NBA draft. He then missed his first two seasons because of two surgeries to repair the navicular bone in his right foot.
Embiid played in only 31 games in his third season, his first actual season on the court, before the team announced on March 1, 2017, that he would need season-ending knee surgery.
The he came back healthy for the 2017-18 season and began a string of seven straight NBA All-Star Game starts. That streak concluded this season, as Embiid wasn’t an All-Star, in large part because of missed games.
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And when he has played, Embiid, who has mostly been dealing with left knee swelling, has often been a shell of his dominant self.
His scoring average of 24.9 points is the fourth lowest of his nine-season career. His 8.5 rebounds and 1.0 blocks are the second-lowest and lowest, respectively, of his career. And the elite free-throw shooter has made an uncharacteristic 73.8% while playing in four of the last five games after missing 15 consecutive contests.
“Obviously, when you’re in and out, it takes time to get back to yourself,” Embiid said. “Obviously, I’m missing shots that I usually make. The free throws — I went from being a 95% free-throw shooter to a 60% free-throw shooter. It’s tough. The only way to get it back is having that consistency of playing every night.”