Joel Embiid Believes Sixers Will Only Get Better After Taking Down Warriors

The Philadelphia 76ers haven't seen a lot of success lately. After the team started the 2021-2022 season off hot, they hit a bit of a cold streak as illnesses

The Philadelphia 76ers haven't seen a lot of success lately. After the team started the 2021-2022 season off hot, they hit a bit of a cold streak as illnesses and injuries derailed their early progress.

While the Sixers are healthy once again, re-growing that early season chemistry has been a work in progress over the last few weeks. Earlier this week, the Sixers concluded a four-game road trip with three wins and one loss.

As they returned home looking to build off of that momentum they gained on the road, the Sixers threw up a dud on Thursday night as they took a beatdown against the Utah Jazz for a second time this season.

What they put on display on Thursday left many with little confidence in Philly's ability to compete with the Golden State Warriors on Saturday. Not only did the Warriors already beat up on the Sixers last month, but they also entered Saturday's game with a league's best 21-4 record.

With the Warriors looking to pick up their 22nd win of the season, and Steph Curry approaching Ray Allen's three-point shooting record, there was a lot of pressure on the Sixers to spoil Golden State's potentially special night in South Philly.

It was far from easy, but the Sixers found success. After trailing three points going into the final quarter of action, the Sixers outscored the Warriors by 12 points in the fourth quarter and managed to issue the Warriors their fifth loss of the year by taking them out 102-93. After the game, Sixers star Joel Embiid believed that was his team's most impressive win of the year. And while there is still a long way to go, Embiid believes the Sixers can only get better from here on out. 

"Considering everything else, that’s the best team in the league as far as record goes,” said Embiid on Saturday. “We didn’t play well today, but we did a good enough job. We can get way better. Like I always say, we don’t take enough threes and we gotta make them too. I think last game, we didn’t make anything at all, and tonight, we made a few, but not enough. We always can get better and that’s a good thing about us, you grind out these types of wins and then you also understand that you’re not even close to where you’re supposed to be.”

The Sixers have a lot to improve on moving forward, but Saturday's victory was a step in the right direction. With that victory, Philly picked up its 15th win of the year and sit 3.5 games back from the Eastern Conference frontrunners, the Brooklyn Nets. 

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.