The Athletic: 76ers move to 3-0, are putting nightmare of last season behind them

PHILADELPHIA — When a team with so much expectation for a season goes through 82 games and wins 24 of them, the next year can go a couple of ways. The spiral could continue. The frustration can linger. And almost everything can fall apart. Or maybe reinforcements can be made and lessons can be learned.

Either way, the Philadelphia 76ers’ nightmare of last season will be remembered by almost everyone who experienced it.

The Sixers don’t want a repeat. The principal characters involved have made this clear since training camp. But that’s what camp is for, to elicit hope. What speaks louder is how a team plays when the regular season begins.

The new 76ers are 3-0 after a rousing 136-124 win over the Orlando Magic on Monday. They are one of four unbeaten teams in the NBA and one of only two teams (including the Bulls) in the Eastern Conference without a loss. They’ve been an angry magnet of energy, led by MVP-level play from Tyrese Maxey and precocious rookie V.J. Edgecombe. They have fought and scrapped their way to three consecutive wins.

When the Magic tried to punk them Monday, the Sixers made sure the bullies got bullied. When Desmond Bane fouled Maxey and stood over him, Maxey jumped to his feet and went nose to nose with Bane, the two players close enough to smell each other’s breath.

The Sixers are 3-0 for the first time since 2019.

“Y’all saw what happened last year, right?”

That was Philadelphia forward Kelly Oubre, whose one sentence sums up how this team is feeling and the chip they are playing with. Outwardly, this roster is saying the right things. They know there will be adversity, there will be losses and there will be rough patches.

But the embarrassment of last season won’t easily subside for this team. It’s a proud and storied franchise. And the players know how important this season is, in terms of winning.

“We know that we are going to go through some things,” Oubre said. “But, it’s how we respond that’s going to determine what we end up being.”

Philadelphia keeps passing the small tests that come its way. A regular-season opening win against the Boston Celtics proved the Sixers were capable of winning a possession game on the road. That win, and Saturday night’s home-opening win over the Charlotte Hornets, proved the 76ers were capable of facing double-digit fourth-quarter deficits and rallying to win.

Monday night was different, however. Against a Magic team fully loaded with bookend forwards Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, the Sixers won without Joel Embiid, Paul George, Jared McCain, Trendon Watford and Dominick Barlow. Last season, such an extensive injury list would have meant almost certain defeat. But this team is determined to roll with whomever is in uniform and expects to win.

It’s a team that so far has been a stickler for small details. In the first half Monday, when rookie guard Hunter Sallis checked into an NBA game for the first time, he noticed Maxey yelling at him.

“Why are you yelling?” Sallis asked.

“Your jersey is hanging out,” Maxey responded. “We don’t want to get a technical foul, because you don’t have your jersey tucked in.”

“Twin, I’m just happy I got into the game,” Sallis said.