PHILADELPHIA — What comes after DEFCON 2?

These are dire days in 76ers Land, with the team’s inability to stay healthy looking worse than ever.

The 76ers arrived home from their 0-3 road trip to find everyone on alert. Luckily for them, Joel Embiid broke out of his funk Wednesday with season highs of 35 points and 11 rebounds in a 117-111 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies to give the Sixers a smidgen of positivity.

Still, the Sixers, a team with title aspirations, dropped to a league-worst 2-12 record. Not only are the Sixers 12 1/2 games out of first place, they could be without Paul George for the second time this season.

This offseason’s prized free-agent acquisition hyperextended his left knee on Wednesday for the second time in six weeks. George was sidelined for 20 days after he first suffered the injury in a preseason road game against the Atlanta Hawks on Oct. 14. The loss to the Grizzlies (9-7) was just his eighth game of the season.

So, all things considered, it’s definitely time to be concerned. It’s just not time to panic. When will it be? If the Sixers get their Big Three — Embiid, George, and Tyrese Maxey — all playing at a high level, and they still can’t win.

There’s still uncertainty about when that group will be fully intact. And the usual questions will be asked along the way: How long will George be out? How long will it take Embiid to get in better shape? How long will it take for Maxey to find his rhythm after a strained right hamstring?

The immediate goal is to get a much-needed victory against the Brooklyn Nets on Friday at the Wells Fargo Center. To do that, the Sixers must improve upon defensive shortcomings they displayed Wednesday. Memphis’ transition game and speed mostly dominated what has been a small, slow and old team.

“In the first half, it was certainly transition,” coach Nick Nurse said. “Things were coming at us too fast. It was down the floor. It was even if we were matched up, we were kind of late, and they were already in the paint and they were kicking it out and obviously beat us quite handily from the three-point line — 19-11 [on made threes] is hard to overcome from the three-point line.

“And I thought we had a stretch of not-so-good offensive rebounding. ... We had a hard time guarding the ball until late. We had a hard time driving into the paint and making a play because of physicality. And then we kind of got on board and adjusted and started adjusting the same way and creating some of our own turnovers.”

The Sixers still have hopes of turning around their terrible start. They wouldn’t be the first team to do so. The 1996-97 Phoenix Suns turned things around after opening the season with 13 straight losses before going 40-29 the rest of the way. That team finished with a 40-42 record and the Western Conference’s seventh playoff seed before losing a best-of-five first-round series to the Seattle SuperSonics in five games.

Meanwhile, the 2004-05 Chicago Bulls opened the season with nine consecutive losses and were 2-12 through 14 games before finishing with a 47-35 record and East’s fourth seed. They lost to the Washington Wizards in a first-round series.

But an opening-round playoff loss is not what the Sixers want from this season. They want to get past the second round and hope to reach the NBA Finals.

Right now, that appears to be a pipe dream for a franchise that lost to a Memphis squad playing without two starters and six players total. In fact, the Sixers' last two losses came against weary teams playing on the second day of back-to-backs.

So all of the stars must align for the Sixers to blossom into a championship contender.

Even though Embiid had a good scoring game Wednesday, the 2023 league MVP has yet to move like he did in seasons past. The seven-time All-Star must return to his MVP level for the Sixers to have a chance.

Even before his injury, George had not played well offensively. He missed shots and did not appear to be the same George of the last couple of seasons. The nine-time All-Star must come back healthy and find his offensive rhythm.

And Maxey must play like he did last season when was the league’s Most Improved Player.

Right now, Jared McCain has been the one consistent bright spot. Guerschon Yabusele had a good game Wednesday, scoring 17 points while making 5 of 6 3-pointers. At the moment, however, the Sixers often are way overmatched.

To make matters worse, people in Philly are jumping off the bandwagon. And it’s hard to blame them.

Maybe we’ll never see what the Sixers' on-paper roster touch the basketball court. There’s a precedent for that, too.

The Nets acquired James Harden in a blockbuster trade from the Houston Rockets to form a Big Three with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving on Jan. 16, 2021. However, the trio appeared in only 16 only games together in Brooklyn before the Sixers acquired Harden in another blockbuster deal for Ben Simmons on Feb. 10, 2022.

Everything looks good on paper, but you have to get on the court and get healthy.

If the Sixers get everyone on the court and healthy, then the question becomes: Are they a championship-caliber team?

That doesn’t appear to be the case.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have the NBA’s best record at 16-1. They’re led by perennial All-Star in Donovan Mitchell. The Cavs also have 2022 All-Stars Darius Garland (point guard) and Jarrett Allen (center), as well as power forward Evan Mobley leading a deep roster.

Meanwhile, the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics are favored to repeat as champions. The second-place Celtics (12-3) handed Cleveland its lone loss. All-Stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are the league’s best wing tandem and lead the league’s best starting lineup.

And the New York Knicks are starting to live up their lofty expectations. The third-place team, led by All-Star duo of point guard Jalen Brunson and center Karl-Anthony Towns, improved to 9-6 after winning four straight and six of its last eight games.

The Knicks, Celtics, and Cavs are younger, more athletic, and deeper than the Sixers.

So even if Philly gets healthy, it will have a tough time coming out of the East.

©2024 The Philadelphia Inquirer. Visit inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.