PHILADELPHIA — What can the Philadelphia 76ers do without Joel Embiid?

The team needs answers badly. A 4-11 record without the big man will not stand. Tyrese Maxey, Tobias Harris and Nick Nurse performing their best is the baseline for any sort of success they will find. Getting De'Anthony Melton and Nico Batum back from their own injuries will be greatly helpful. But it will take much more than that, even if Philly makes some roster upgrades ahead of the deadline.

Maxey has talked previously about how he has to focus on getting the whole team going when Embiid isn’t there. The importance of a unified effort from the undermanned 76ers was underscored after getting swiftly defeated in back-to-back games at home.

“I think our competitive nature is one of them,” Maxey said of what the Sixers need to do in order to withstand Embiid's absence. “I mean, we gotta be extremely competitive. That's with or without a big fella. But without him, we gotta be extremely competitive. Gotta play a lot harder. Gotta go out there and play with a lot more edge and go out there and play together.”

The 76ers have played games without Embiid where they do play hard. But they have also played some games where it was clear from the jump that they didn’t have it, like their blowout loss to the Brooklyn Nets. The big man will be re-evaluated in approximately four weeks, leaving Philly with a humungous need to not just play even harder but even more efficiently.

“And like we just talked about, even with the blitzes or whatever happens, I gotta come off the ball faster and maybe [Paul Reed] gotta get the pocket quicker,” Maxey continued. “We all gotta do it collectively. But it's only one way we're gonna fix it. That's just to stand together and going out there and working on it.”

Tightening up against the blitz is a critical way the 76ers can improve their chances of stealing wins without Embiid. As Maxey said, it's going to take all of them to stay afloat in the Eastern Conference Standings.