What's Gotten Into The Philadelphia 76ers and made them so competitive?

What’s Gotten Into The Philadelphia 76ers?

By Bret Stuter | Jan 27, 2017

Jan 3, 2017; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers forward Robert Covington (33) reacts with Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid (21) and guard Nik Stauskas (11) and forward Dario Saric (9) after hitting the game winning shot against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Wells Fargo Center. The Philadelphia 76ers won 93-91. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports /

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From Dr.Jeckyl to Mr. Hyde? The Philadelphia 76ers have been on a rampage recently. But let’s be honest, this surprised everyone. What’s gotten into the Philadelphia 76ers?

After the Philadelphia 76ers lost to the Utah Jazz on December 29, 2016 to the score of 100-83, they had fallen to a 7-24 record, and were in discussions for the top draft pick of the 2017 NBA Draft. We had our post-game analysis. Fans had another chapter of hopeful NBA team interested in our center. But the closest thing to a clue that this team, and the supportive fans who have stood so loyally behind them, had was the memory of the claim from Jerry Colangelo that this team would be awfully competitive in three years.

Memories, trades, and a post game article that sucked the optimism out of even the most optimistic of us.

But the team had three things going for it: Joel Embiid was delivering far better than even his overhyped debut predicted, Joel Embiid was running a national campaign to be voted into the NBA All-Star Game, and due to injuries to both Gerald Henderson and Sergio Rodriguez, head coach Brett Brown had to start T.J. McConnell and Nik Stauskas.

And it was as though Emeril, or Embiid, had just taken it up another notch:

From what I’ve seen, that pretty much describes what happened.