Nick Nurse and the 76ers were optimistic after Wednesday’s meeting at their training facility in Camden.

The Sixers (7-15) are in 12th place in the Eastern Conference and, after a four-day break, will play the Indiana Pacers on Friday at the Wells Fargo Center at 7 p.m. This competition kicks off a successful stretch of 14 games, nine of which are against teams with losing records. They also face the San Antonio Spurs, who are 12-12.

After a 108-100 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Sunday that marked the return of Joel Embiid after a seven-game absence, the Sixers, who have won four of their last five games, will also use these matchups to strengthen cohesion.

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This process begins with the involvement of Paul George. The Sixers implemented packages during Wednesday’s practice to make George a more active participant when playing alongside Embiid and Tyrese Maxey.

Embiid scored 31 points and 12 rebounds in Sunday’s win over the Chicago Bulls. Maxey finished the game with 25 points along with a career-high 11 rebounds and 14 assists, recording his first triple-double. Meanwhile, George had 12 points after averaging 25 in his last two games.

“But there were a few combinations when they were in the twosome, I just think they have to do better, right?” the nurse said. “And then you can see them and say, ‘PG does this, (Embiid) does that when you two work together.’

“And I think we can achieve rapid growth there because they finally played together. Now we can start to tweak it a little.”

The Sixers also believe they will reduce their unforced turnovers and improve their shooting from the field and the foul line.

“Right now there are about six or seven games where we played pretty well,” said Nurse, whose squad has been sidelined since Sunday for the NBA Cup. “There is still so much low-hanging fruit. We can do better now.”

Nurse also knows that this stretch represents a great opportunity to move up in the standings.

After hosting the Pacers (10-15), the Sixers face the Charlotte Hornets (7-17) on Monday at the Spectrum Center. They then play home and away against the Hornets and Cleveland Cavaliers on December 20th and 21st, respectively.

The Sixers return home to host the Spurs on December 23rd before six straight road games against the Boston Celtics (December 25th), Utah Jazz (December 28th), Portland Trail Blazers (December 30th) and Sacramento Kings (January 1), Golden State Warriors (January 2) and Brooklyn Nets (January 4).

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They finish the stretch with a three-game homestand against the Phoenix Suns (January 6), Washington Wizards (January 8) and New Orleans Pelicans (January 10).

The Cavs (21-4), Celtics (19-5), Golden State Warriors (14-10) and Suns (12-11) are the four teams with winning records in this stretch. It is now the Pacers, Hornets, Jazz (5-18), Blazers (8-16), Kings (12-13), Nets (10-14), Wizards (3-19) and Pelicans (5-20). under .500.

With a long way left in the season, the Nets are two games ahead of the Sixers in eighth place. The Pacers, Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons are 1½ games ahead – and those teams have tougher schedules than the Sixers in the first two weeks of January.

Furthermore, the Sixers are stronger than ever this season and could win at least eight or nine wins in this phase.

“We won too,” said Guerschon Yabusele. “So the personality (of the team) and everything was a little bit different. But in general we’re just trying to stay positive, take it game by game and figure out where we’re at.”