Don’t look now, but the Philadelphia 76ers are getting closer to being a normal* basketball team (*Sixers adjusted scale). The Sixers are 3-2 in their last five games, with overtime losses to Houston and the Magic coming in a game that came down to the final seconds. Philadelphia has now moved up to 13th place in the Eastern Conference. Take that, hornets and wizards!

The Sixers were helped by Paul George looking back to his old self. The veteran nine-time All-Star recovered from his second bone bruise of the season and played in three of the last four games, with all three appearances resulting in wins for Philadelphia. In his last two games, George averaged 25.0 points and 8.5 assists. That’s what the Sixers committed to when they spent $212 million over four years in the offseason.

Philadelphia could also get a boost from Joel Embiid, who may return after being upgraded to questionable for tonight’s contest. Embiid hasn’t played since Nov. 20 in Memphis and certainly hasn’t played in MVP form when he took the court this season. So we probably shouldn’t expect the world to manage to try. Nevertheless, it is hopefully a positive sign, as is the fact that the squad is relatively healthy overall with only Adem Bona missing due to injury.

Meanwhile, Chicago is missing Patrick Williams due to a foot injury, but Lonzo Ball, Nikola Vucevic and Coby White are all listed as probable. As usual, the Bulls are 10-14 and are in play-in tournament territory, with no realistic chance of gaining a foothold in the East but too much talent to hit rock bottom. Chicago took a step toward rebuilding in the offseason, executing a three-team sign-and-trade to send DeMar DeRozan to Sacramento in return for a pair of second-round picks. However, they also sent Alex Caruso to Oklahoma City in exchange for Josh Giddey rather than getting draft capital from anyone in return for the veteran defensive ace.

Zach LaVine is back healthy after missing most of last season. He leads the team with 21.8 points per game while shooting 50.8 percent from the field and 43.2 percent from three. LaVine has two more seasons left on his contract after this season and earned over $90 million. So it would be difficult to find a trading partner, but it’s slowly getting back to not being a particularly negative asset.

A more likely trade value is Nikola Vucevic, who is in the final year of his contract next season and costs just $21.4 million. The Sixers’ former first-round pick is currently averaging career highs in field goal percentage, three-point percentage, free throw percentage, eFG percentage and true shooting percentage. He is currently shooting 58.7 percent from the field and 47.4 percent from three on 4.8 attempts per game. Two games ago in San Antonio, Voose dropped 39 points on 16 of 22 shots. This would be a great sell for a Grade 14 student with an all-time hotter.

Sunday matinee games are often peculiar as players are thrown out of their usual gaming routines. I’m sure many Sixers fans will be focused on the Gridiron competition happening at the exact same time in South Philly. We’ll see if Joel responds well in the warm-up and can get fit. Either way, this should be a good challenge for the Sixers after their nice win over Orlando on Friday. The Bulls aren’t world-beaters, but they’re a huge improvement over the Pistons and Hornets from last weekend. Let’s take another look at some Philadelphia sports and assess how far these Sixers have come since their disastrous start to the season.

Game details

WHO: Philadelphia 76ers at Chicago Bulls
When: 1:00 p.m. ET
Where: United Center, Chicago, IL
Regard: NBC Sports Philadelphia
Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic
Consequences: @LibertyBallers