Sometimes we have to stop, pause, and put things in perspective.

The Sixers just went 7-3 in Joel Embiid’s absence. They finished a six-game road trip with four wins. They are a half-game behind the Brooklyn Nets for first place in the Eastern Conference.

Considering the circumstances, it could have been infinitely worse. Previous iterations of the 76ers would have gone 3-7 without Embiid, fallen two or three spots down the conference standings, and had people calling for Brett Brown’s head on Twitter and the radio.

All told, it’s really been an excellent run for this team, which returns to Philadelphia for a weekend back-to-back in which Embiid should return, with the addition of deadline acquisition George Hill also on the horizon.

“Terrific road trip for us,” said Doc Rivers after the Cleveland win. “It really was. Honest to God, I wanted them all (every win). I’m not lying, and I told our guys that. But going 4-2 with Joel out is a heck of a trip.”

It is a heck of a trip, and Thursday night they went out and shot 40.5% from three and got a fantastic effort from the bench while limiting Cleveland’s guards. They packed the paint defensively and also got to the free throw line 25 times, which is an extremely high number without Embiid.

“I told them at halftime that we had the perfect game,” Rivers added. “We only had one turnover. They had no offensive rebounds for points. We basically took them out of transition and didn’t give up points in the paint. I said the only problem is that we’re missing wide open shots, and I said ‘I’m good with that, we all do enough work on our shot, so if you have them in the second half, keep shooting.’ That’s all we told them at halftime, and in the second half they started going in for us.”

The Sixers shot 18-35 in the second half (51%) and outscored Cleveland by 18 in that time frame.

Two guards seeing five guys

The Cavs aren’t a great team, but they’ve got a couple of tricky guards in Collin Sexton and Darius Garland who have given the Sixers a bit of trouble in the past. Sexton got his points in this game, but turned the ball over above his season average and only shot 1-4 from three. Garland was held to six points, his lowest total since February 10th, while coughing the ball up seven times.

“We packed the paint and that’s all we talked about, that we needed men on the elbows and boxes,” said Rivers of the defensive approach. “When they look up, they see five guys. We talked about it Wednesday, we talked about it Thursday morning, where every time they see five guys on defense. I thought we did that. And our switching was fantastic as well.”

Case in point, there were a number of dribble drives where the Sixers just built a wall around the paint and swallowed Cleveland’s ball handlers, like right here:

With weakside help from Dwight Howard, Garland just gets stuck in the air, and throws that kickout pass right to Matisse Thybulle.

They also did a really nice job in transition defense, with quick hands forcing a couple of steals in open space. And it was one of those games where the data would tell you to pack the paint and allow the perimeter to be less defended, because Cleveland is the second-worst three-point shooting team in the league. They only hit 33.5% of their threes and only take 27.8 per game, which is dead last.

Nice job by the Sixers implementing a simple plan and executing it.

Ebbs and flows with Shake Milton

The Sixers starters only scored 49 points in this game. Normally that would be a recipe for a loss, but Shake Milton and Dwight Howard came to play, combining for 45 off the bench. Their second unit compatriots added 20 more.

Milton specifically was 10-14 from the field and has now gone for double digits in eight straight games. He looks more like the player we saw in early January and late March, and Rivers described it as natural ups and downs during the course of a season.

“It’s just ebbs and flows of a league, playing a lot of games,” the head coach said. “One of the things with this league, as a player, you get in these tough ways and it kind of snowballs quickly. Then you gotta play yourself out of it, and I think he’s played his way out of it. Listen, he puts in a ton of work, and when you do that you’re able to trust yourself when things aren’t going well, and that’s where his confidence comes from.”

They need this from Milton, because he’s going to be a significant piece of the playoff rotation. On paper, it’s the starting lineup, with Hill, Milton, and Howard coming off the bench. That’s eight. You really are not going to be playing more than that in the second round, when matched up against a team like Milwaukee or Miami (Charlotte would be preferable). Remember that two seasons ago the Sixers’ bench against Toronto was basically Mike Scott, James Ennis, and a few minutes of Greg Monroe. The trio they have this year is so much better than what was available back then.

Dwight Howard singing

Howard was in a good mood during his Zoom call and began it like this:

Damn he’s got a pretty good voice. Marvin Gaye 2.0? Get this man on American Idol.

The call ended like this:

Have a great Friday, and remember to bend your knees.