Unfortunately, the Philadelphia 76ers have had a hard time keeping its key players on the court as of late as the Eastern Conference franchise continues to battle what appears to be some kind of COVID-19 outbreak. After Sixers guard Seth Curry originally tested positive during the team's matchup against the Brooklyn Nets back on Jan. 7, things got a bit complicated especially in regards to fellow Philadelphia guard Ben Simmons.

With the Sixers being forced to remain in New York overnight to perform the proper contact tracing and further testing, Simmons initially fled on his own before the team needed to call him back in order to take part in the ongoing procedures.

“It wasn’t reported the way it sounds,” Sixers head coach Rivers recently said, via Ky Carlin in Sixers Wire. “Obviously, that night we were all in disarray. A bunch of guys were ordering cars because we all did think we could go back home. Ben was on his way, I called him, and told him he couldn’t because of the protocols and he just turned around and came back.”

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The Sixers were briefly the best team in the Eastern Conference as Rivers, in his first year at the helm in Philadelphia, had his team playing some impressive basketball to open the 2020-21 regular season. Now 7-4 on the year, the Sixers have lost three consecutive games due in part to the team's lack of depth with players coming and going as a result of COVID-19.

“It wasn’t even a mix-up,” Rivers added, via Yahoo! Sports. “There was no up. We didn’t know anything at the time. Even I was ordering a car. We didn’t know what we could do the next day. We thought we could leave and get tested at home. Then we were told we could not do that. After that game, it was a lot of different moving parts going on at the same time.”

However, only the Boston Celtics at 7-4 currently have a better record than the highly talented Sixers in the Eastern Conference standings.