CAMDEN, N.J. — The Philadelphia 76ers were one of the NBA's biggest disappointments as the All-Star break arrived. It's hard to imagine something better awaiting them in their final 28 games. Nonetheless, Tyrese Maxey and the team are working to flip the script and improve on its 20-34 record.

After the 76ers' practice on Wednesday, Maxey reaffirmed the Sixers' belief in themselves and said that they have some good energy going around as the season picks back up.

“Yeah, pretty good energy, honestly,” Maxey said. “Everybody's out here ready to compete tomorrow and throughout the rest of the season. Guys are optimistic. At the end of the day, it's in our hands. If we want to go take some spots and move up in the standings then we gotta go do that as a group collectively. It's gonna start with Joel [Embiid], Paul [George] and myself — and not just scoring and not just like on the court but just mentality-wise, holding ourselves accountable and holding guys accountable.”

Tyrese Maxey staying positive as 76ers resume season

Any amount of good energy the 76ers have must be earned with consistent winning. Although they’re on the doorstep of the play-in tournament, and therefore not in serious danger of missing the postseason, they’re going to have to fight even harder to get a playoff spot.

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“I think the biggest thing is we gotta hold ourselves accountable,” Maxey said. “We gotta go out there and put [in] a lot better effort. It's not just going [to happen] because we are talented basketball players. It's not just gonna fall into our hands. We have to go out there and actually win games.

“Nobody's scared of us. As you can see, our record shows it,” he continued. “But, we gotta out there and really compete hard. We wanna fight and get to the play-in and do what we want to, compete. We gotta do it, take that upon ourselves and do it.”

Embiid and George have been huge letdowns this season but are still among the best players in the league, along with Maxey. The Sixers certainly have the talent to turn their season around. Whether they have the cohesion or the health luck remains to be seen.

The 76ers start their post-break slate of games with a home matchup against the Boston Celtics on Thursday night.