Sometimes it really feels like Philadelphia sports teams and their fans can't have nice things.

The Sixers played their first slate of post-All-Star Break basketball like they were shot out of a cannon, going 3-0 in a perfect week and winning each game by an average of 27.7 points. Even more impressive, each one of those victories came without either one or both of Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. The Sixers continue to pace the Eastern Conference at 27-12.

And all I can think about is Embiid's damned left knee.

The big fella played in one game and was his typically dominant self against the Washington Wizards (23 points and 7 rebounds in only 20 minutes) until he landed awkwardly after a dunk. His left leg buckled and his knee appeared to jut out the wrong direction, and he crumpled to the ground, where he lay for several minutes writhing in pain while the medical staff and team personnel surrounded him. Naturally, he left the game and did not return.

Now, the news was not awful--imaging revealed no structural damage, and the 7', 280-pound superstar will not require surgery. Instead, Embiid was left with a bone bruise that will force him to miss some time, but not end his season. He is set to be re-evaluated in two weeks.

But...man, was it frightening to watch. Embiid is a truly transcendent talent--the Hakeem Olajuwon comparisons are at once tired and true and, incredibly, seem to sell him short. Embiid has all of the physical gifts and two-way skills of The Dream, but even the Hall of Famer didn't have the Sixers center's shooting touch or brute strength. But what he did have was durability. Through his first seven seasons, Olajuwon played in all 82 games three times and at least 75 in two others. He missed 50 regular season games in that span, about 8.7% of the Rockets' games.

Embiid missed 51 games in his first 'healthy' season. Including this latest injury, he will have failed to appear in even 80% of his team's games in every one of his seven years. As of this writing, he has missed 282 of a possible 522 games (54.0%). And with a frame that big, every single blow to the lower body is magnified because of the mass needing to be supported.

Yes, it's a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison. Sports science has evolved, and guys simply don't play the same volume of games and minutes as they used to. Resting players, especially stars, is common practice, and 'load management' is a term that is officially a part of sports lexicon now. That especially holds true for a guy who has missed two full seasons. But...the guy has missed two full seasons. I love The Process as much as the next Sixers superfan, but I am scared to death every time he shows up on the injury report.

Okay, dour hour is over. That's all I'll say about that. Tons of positive observations to report...

Thursday, 3/11/21: Won at Chicago Bulls 127-105

--Tony Bradley and Dwight Howard in this one: 32 points on 15-for-19 shooting, 17 rebounds (six on the offensive glass), five blocks. That will certainly get it done in the middle. Owed largely to this duo, the Sixers outrebounded the Bulls 45-38, won second chance points 23-16, and completely owned points in the paint 78-42. They won't dominate like this every night, but if the Bradley-Howard tandem can hold the fort down in Embiid's absence with some level of consistency, that would be a massive boon for the Sixers.

--Matisse Thybulle...13 points on a perfect 5-for-5 shooting including three triples??? More of that please! I have been on the fence about the sophomore shooting guard all season, praising his soul-snatching defensive possessions on the one hand (five more steals in this one), and decrying his soul-crushing offensive ineptitude on the other. This performance will no doubt be anomalous--I still don't expect him to ever reach even replacement-level offensive ability on a consistent basis. But IF he can manage to sprinkle in just a few more performances like this every now and again--say, once every 5-10 games instead of once every 35-40--then he warrants 25-28 minutes per night for me, easy. He reminds me of an Andre Roberson type prior to the debilitating knee injuries. I would take that.

--I'm running out of superlatives for Tobias Harris. I won't complain about his All-Star snub any longer. I'll simply just say the 28-year-old forward has been worth every penny of his colossal deal thus far this season. 24 more points here on a tidy 8-for-15 shooting, but more importantly he bullied his way to the 8 free throws, connecting on seven. A big part of the loss of Embiid is the Sixers are being robbed of 10-12 free throws every night. If Harris can tap into a bit more aggression (his 22.5% free throw rate, while only a bit lower than his career average of 23.7%, remains significantly lagging behind the league average of 24.8%), then his already excellent scoring profile will become even more dangerous.

--Oh, by the way, Ben Simmons didn't play in this one either. This was the club's first victory without both of its' stars all season. And it looked good! Despite missing Simmons, the ball movement was crisp (25 assists to 10 turnovers) and the defense held up pretty well against first time All-Star Zach LaVine (19 points on 16 shots). Not a single Sixer finished with a negative point-differential (though Tyrese Maxey broke even). Just a nice, well-rounded win.

--Good to see Thaddeus Young always. Dude is a class act, and he can still play (14 points and 8 boards off the bench). I've mentioned a few times how I'd loved to see him back here in Philly. Even without a reliable 3-point shot, he'd be such an intriguing second-unit piece bringing versatile and study defense, smart screens and cuts, surprisingly deft passing (career high 4.3 assists against 1.9 turnovers), and just a steady veteran presence and team guy. I don't know that it's feasible, but I'd love to see it. Or maybe Morey can blow my mind and pull a guy like Lauri Markkanen. The Bulls don't fully seem committed to the Finn, and he's an RFA this summer. I know trade logistics would be impossible, and he's a starter and would probably have his feathers ruffled if he came off the bench, but he cooked the Sixers for 7 triples in as many tries this one. I'd give my left pinky for that type of shooting out of the frontcourt. Sorry...trade season on the brain.

Friday, 3/12/21: Won at Washington Wizards 127-101

--Wire-to-wire, baby. The Sixers scored the first two points in this one, and...that was it. Philly ran up the lead to as much as 32. They played with their food a bit at points in the first half--a 32-13 late first quarter leveled off to 48-40 midway through the second frame--but they just blew the doors off the Wizards in the second half. A ten-point lead at the opening tip for halftime was 19 four minutes later, and from there it never fell lower than 15.

--36 points combined from Furkan Korkmaz and Shake Milton, such a beautiful thing. The Bradley-Howard tandem was efficient and effective again with 12 points on eight shots and 13 rebounds, plus a block. Mike Scott hit both of his triples and added two rebounds and assists apiece, and finished a second-unit high +12. The battle of the benches was heavily in the Sixers favor overall, 56-38. More of that, please. Speaking of Korkmaz...this is, what, the second time I'm apologizing him? After being held scoreless in a 2-minute cameo against Toronto on February 21, something clicked. In eight games since (through Sunday's games), he's averaged 14.1 points on 46.8/48.0/77.3 in 20.7 minutes, firmly reestablishing himself in Doc's rotation. The fourth-year guard has tantalized before, but it never holds. Maybe this time it's different?

--The Sixers as a team slashed 54.4/52.4/100.0 en route to their 127 points. No, Washington isn't exactly a defensive wrecking ball (114.6 defensive rating, 27th in the league), but that's efficiency right there, folks.

--More solid team defense on a high-scoring backcourt. Bradley Beal and Russell Westbrook scored 44 points on 32 shots. That's certainly productive, but they average over 53 points on about 43 shots. The Sixers contained them and denied them the rock as much as they're used to. And Westbrook finished -24 and Beal was -16, so it's not like the Sixers ran up the score on backups. To that end, the Sixers also did a much better job on Davis Bertans in this one. In these teams' first two contests, Bertans averaged 15.5 points and canned eight total threes at 40.0%. This time? 3 points on five shot attempts in just ten minutes.

--I struggled coming up with a fifth topic after such an effortless and lopsided win against a bad team, so I defaulted to one of my favorite filler topics: Danny Green. The 33-year-old wing just keeps on being Danny Green. 12 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and a block, a team-high +24. He hit a couple threes, he defended well on the perimeter, he was the only Sixer to log 30+ minutes. He's just solid, man.

Sunday, 3/14/21: Won v. San Antonio Spurs 134-99

--Not to start negative, but only 11 free throw attempts as a team in a home game? It didn't make any difference at all obviously, but that should never happen. I mentioned early how big of a factor Embiid is in this regard, but an amount that paltry is inexcusable. The Spurs almost tripled them at the line (31 attempts). Come on guys. Attack.

--21 points for Seth Curry on 16 shots, including 3-for-6 from downtown. Is he snapping out of it? 15.3 points, 3 rebounds and 4.3 assists over his last four games would seem to suggest as much. The shooting still isn't where it was (though the 46.9/36.8/100.0 over this stretch is certainly respectable), but he seems to be regaining strength and stamina and comfort. The Sixers would love to get him all the way back.

--35 assists to 11 turnovers? 57.1% from the floor as a team? 15 threes at 51.7% Hellllll yes. Another remarkably well-rounded and explosive win. In fact, it was the Sixers biggest dismantling of the Spurs ever. So many guys had great games. just take the names I've already mentioned in this article from the earlier games and run with them. It's that simple. This team really seems to be gelling.

--LaMarcus Aldridge has been formally removed from the Spurs rotation in preparation for a possible trade or outright release. I wonder if the Sixers might have any interest, particularly if Embiid is out longer than expected? The 35-year-old is no longer the nightly 20-10 threat he was for basically a decade (21.0 points and 8.8 rebounds from 2010-2020), and he's strictly a ground-bound paint body on the defensive end, but he remains a highly skilled, highly intelligent player, and he'll be hitting mid-range jumpers until he's 100. He's also developed into a viable deep-threat late in his career (37.9% on 3.1 attempts per game dating back to last year). If it doesn't cost much, and especially if he is bought out, maybe he's worth a look.

--3,071 fans were in attendance to watch this game. It was the first home crowd in over a calendar year. You can really tell it meant something the way the Sixers showed out. We've still got a long road ahead of us, but this was a wonderful start.

What's Next?

The sprint out of the All-Star Break continues with a four-game week made up of two back-to-backs. Tuesday night at 8 p.m., the Sixers will host the very surprising New York Knicks (20-19) before hitting the hardwood the next very next night at home for a 7 p.m. tussle with the slightly disappointing Milwaukee Bucks (24-14). After two days off, they finish up their homestand with a Saturday night matchup with the Sacramento Kings (15-23) at 8 p.m. On Sunday, they face the Knicks again, but this time up at Madison Square Garden at 8 p.m.

The Sixers haven't seen the Knicks since the second game of the season. They crushed New York 109-89 that night, but that was a different team. Julius Randle has since earned himself an All-Star appearance averaging career highs of 22.9 points, 11.0 rebounds and 5.7 assists while morphing into a legitimate floor-spacer (1.9 threes per game at 41.2%). New bench boss Tom Thibodeau also unsurprisingly has seen great buy-in on the defensive end, where the Knicks are shockingly 4th in the league (109.2 rating).

Calling the Bucks disappointing is a relative term. Milwaukee has the second-best net rating in the league at 6.9, and in a 'down' year, Giannis Antetokounmpo is averaging 29.0, 11.6, and 6.1. This will be the first battle of the season between the two heavyweights, and it could well be a Conference Finals preview. Though, should that happen, hopefully by then the Sixers will have a certain MVP-candidate center back in action.

As for Sacramento...well, they're suffering through yet another difficult year. Head coach Luke Walton's job security looks more tenuous with every egg the team lays on the less glamorous end (119.5 defensive rating, worst in the league by a country mile), and trade winds circle Harrison Barnes, Nemanja Bjelica, Buddy Hield, and pretty much everyone not named De'Aaron Fox or Tyrese Haliburton. Speaking of Fox, he did hit the Sixers with 34 points and 10 assists the last time these two teams played, though Philly came from behind late to win 119-111.