Category: Sixers/NBA

The Sixers never looked all that competitive in their 124-96 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday.

With the Sixers still down four starters, the Nuggets took the lead early, and led by double-digits for almost the entire game.

Here’s three things we learned from the opening game of the Sixers’ road trip:

These are still the zombie Sixers

Looking at the three games on this road trip, Denver was easily the most challenging with the players the Sixers had missing. With games against the tanking Sacramento Kings and Utah Jazz coming up on Thursday and Saturday, respectively, the Sixers can still go a respectable 2-1 on the trip and tread water in the playoff race.

Stealing a win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday, a borderline playoff team, might have given the Sixers a bit of hope that they could stay semi-competitive during this stretch. But on Tuesday, Denver dominated from wire-to-wire, just like the Pistons did when the Sixers made the trip to Detroit last week.

It’s possible that Joel Embiid could play on the road trip, coach Nick Nurse said prior to Saturday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets. He said Tuesday that Embiid was “active” during part of shootaround and went through an individual workout. Kelly Oubre Jr. will be re-evaluated at the end of the week and Tyrese Maxey a week after that. Paul George will be full-go immediately after his suspension ends next week.

Heading into Tuesday’s game, the Sixers were still just one game back of the No. 6 seed, which would allow them to bypass the play-in rounds. But the zombie Sixers still have one more tough game before George’s return: Monday’s home showdown with the Oklahoma City Thunder, which makes the next two games of the road-trip near must-wins.

Increased three-point attempts

The Sixers took 25 threes in each game of their back-to-back on Saturday and Sunday. On Tuesday, they attempted 24 threes in the first half alone. But the Sixers shot just 9-for-41 overall from beyond the arc.

In a league dominated by three-point shooting, the Sixers have struggled to replace Maxey’s three-point production, often relying on the mid-range game to score. The Nuggets, though, made 16-for-33 from three.

Down four starters, the Sixers haven’t defended well enough to stop their tougher matchups from making threes and haven’t scored enough to keep up with them. George’s 38.2% three-point percentage is the second-highest on the Sixers behind Maxey, so his expected return to the lineup against the Chicago Bulls on March 25 will help.

Who’s going to be in the healthy rotation?

The idea of the Sixers actually having a healthy rotation might seem far-fetched. There’s always something, but this stretch has given players on the Sixers’ bench an opportunity to show off their skills and make a case to regularly contribute.

There might not be a player who’s made a better case for himself over the last week than Justin Edwards, who scored 11 points in 25 minutes against Denver.

MarJon Beauchamp, still on a two-way deal, was the best Sixer on the floor Tuesday, scoring a team-high 16 points on 54.5% shooting, including four three-pointers.

Nick Nurse recently described the teams in the middle of the Eastern Conference standings, including his 76ers, as “tightly squeezed.” And even though veteran guard Cameron Payne vows to go 1-0 every day rather than looking too far ahead, he acknowledged that the Sixers “need to win every game we possibly can.”

“That’s kind of the situation we’re in,” Payne said. “We need wins.”

Such is life with the 34-28 Sixers clinging to the East’s sixth seed — which avoids the play-in tournament — with 20 games remaining, starting with Saturday’s road contest at the Atlanta Hawks. The Sixers enter Friday a half-game ahead of the seventh-seeded Orlando Magic (33-28) and eighth-seeded Miami Heat (34-29), and one game behind the fifth-seeded Toronto Raptors (35-27). The Sixers rank 17th in remaining strength of schedule, per Tankathon, though the next week includes challenging road games at the Cleveland Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons.

While attempting to maintain their positioning (or move up) during the stretch run, the Sixers will be tasked with rapidly reacclimating the suspended Paul George with 10 games to go. They will deal with uncertainty regarding Joel Embiid, who enjoyed a dominant month but is now hobbled again by shin and oblique injuries. And will they ever reach circumstances that allow some rest for All-Star point guard Tyrese Maxey, who entered Friday leading the NBA in minutes played?

Here is a breakdown of Sixers’ final 20 games:

March 9 at Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cavaliers made arguably the most impactful deadline trade, acquiring former Sixer James Harden to boost the backcourt anchored by All-NBA contender Donovan Mitchell. That automatically adds spice to the final regular-season clash between these teams. But Harden’s addition has fueled a Cleveland turnaround from a disappointing start to the season. The Cavaliers have ascended to the East’s fourth seed and enter Friday one game back of the third-seeded New York Knicks, making Cleveland a potential first-round matchup for the Sixers.

March 12 and April 4 against Detroit Pistons

The Sixers have two games remaining against the East’s bona fide top seed, including a visit to Detroit on Thursday. The Sixers must be ready for the Pistons’ rugged playing style, along with MVP contender Cade Cunningham. These matchups always have Philly ties, with former Sixers Tobias Harris and Paul Reed now in Detroit and Sharon Hill native Jalen Duren, who became a first-time All-Star this season. That April 4 home matchup is the second game of a challenging back-to-back, which also includes an intriguing rematch with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

March 17 at Denver Nuggets

Will we finally get another matchup between Embiid and Nikola Jokić, who previously jostled for MVP awards? Embiid has not played in Denver since 2019, including a 2024 absence when he was an extremely late scratch with a knee issue days before Jonathan Kuminga inadvertently fell on that knee, which prompted multiple surgeries. Jokić, meanwhile, remains a basketball wizard but has not quite looked like himself since returning from a knee injury. Still, the Nuggets are viewed as a primary playoff threat to the Oklahoma City Thunder’s title defense.

March 23 vs. Oklahoma City Thunder

The Thunder’s lone visit to Philly this season was always going to be a high-profile matchup. But it also will be the return of Jared McCain, whom the Sixers dealt to the Thunder at the deadline, a move that has become wildly unpopular with Philly fans. McCain has thrived with the Thunder so far, averaging 11.9 points and shooting 41.1% on 4.7 three-point attempts in 12 games entering Friday.

March 25 vs. Chicago Bulls

This will be George’s first game back following a 25-game suspension for violating the NBA’s antidrug policy. Nurse and teammates have raved about George’s work as an individual and teammate during this time, when he is permitted to be around the Sixers for all practices and shootarounds but must be away from the arena during games. But how quickly he reintegrates on both ends of the floor will be crucial to the Sixers’ postseason outlook.

March 28 at Charlotte Hornets

Remember when the Hornets absolutely obliterated the Sixers in late January? Turns out they were just one victim of the Hornets’ surge into the playoff contention while becoming arguably the NBA’s most entertaining team. Though it would be foolish for the Sixers to overlook this opponent again if they want to stay out of the play-in tournament, they must win games like this. This game will also pit two of the NBA’s top rookies in VJ Edgecombe and Kon Knueppel, now the front-runner for Rookie of the Year.

March 30 at Miami Heat

After the Sixers and Heat split their first two meetings this season, this matchup will decide what could be a crucial tiebreaker. A scheduling advantage for the Sixers? The Heat will be on the second night of a back-to-back and coming off a three-game road trip.

April 6 at San Antonio Spurs

After the Spurs embarrassed the Sixers at home earlier this week, they get another crack at the West contender and superstar Victor Wembanyama about a month later. Will Embiid, who missed Tuesday’s matchup, be healthy for this one? One potential silver lining for the Sixers: This could be late enough in the season that if the Spurs’ seeding is locked up, they could begin resting their top players. Ditto for the Sixers’ visit to the Houston Rockets three days later.

April 12 vs. Milwaukee Bucks

This is the regular-season finale, against a Bucks team that could be desperate to keep its postseason hopes alive. Every NBA team plays on this day, which could cause some last-minute seeding shifts.

Games against the ‘tankers’

Wednesday’s closer-than-expected win over the Utah Jazz underscored how crucial it is for the Sixers to take advantage of all perceived “gimmie” wins.

Those games are:

March 10 vs. Memphis Grizzlies

March 14 vs. Brooklyn Nets

March 19 at Sacramento Kings

March 21 at Utah Jazz

March 25 vs. Chicago Bulls

April 1 at Washington Wizards

April 10 at Indiana Pacers

Perhaps the lone bright spot in the 76ers’ blowout loss Tuesday to the San Antonio Spurs was Jabari Walker, who entered the game in garbage time and scored 20 points in 19 minutes, 29 seconds on 7-for-10 shooting.

Walker later told reporters that he’d “rather not sleep and just get back out there right now.” Walker woke up feeling good Wednesday morning, and he even picked up a new car after spending most of February Ubering around Philly.

That blissful state was threatened for a brief moment.

“I scratched it,” Walker said. “I talked to somebody coming in, I told them the story, they’re like, ‘It’s going to get better for you today.’ I was like, ‘All right, OK, I’m in my zone right now. I’m in basketball world. Whatever happened before stays out.’ So when I saw the first two [shots] go in, I was like, ‘OK. All right. This is a whole new world. I’ve got a chance to redeem myself.’”

Redeem himself he did. Walker scored 22 points on 7-of-12 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds in the Sixers’ 106-102 win over the Utah Jazz. Walker’s final two free throws secured the game for the Sixers in the dying seconds of the fourth quarter.

Walker, who started the season on a two-way contract, exhausted his 50 games of eligibility just before the All-Star break, which kept him out of four games before the team converted his contract to a two-year standard deal on Feb. 16.

He’s been in and out of the lineup and seen his minutes fluctuate as the Sixers vacillate between levels of health. VJ Edgecombe was added to the injury report Wednesday with a back bruise, leaving the Sixers down four starters. Nick Nurse said pregame that they were going to need more from guys further down the bench.

Walker made his first six shots from the floor, starting with two quick threes in the first quarter, providing critical energy off the bench in addition to his usual effectiveness on the boards.

“People that really know me, I’m actually kind of crazy,” Walker said. “I talk a lot, and something’s really wrong with me, but I get a chance to let it out on the court.”

Nurse said that in practices and shootarounds, the coaching staff has been working to give Walker as much positive feedback as possible to try and get him to be more aggressive with his shot.

“We’ve been trying to get him to play like that because he’s a really good shooter,” Nurse said. “You just have to get used to the NBA feel and having enough [confidence] to pull the trigger on them. Noticeably better in his last few games. He’s just running the floor, ball comes to him and he’s open, and he just, not much hesitation on him.”

That support from Nurse has been there since Day 1, even before Walker felt like he’d earned it. “Him being vocal like that makes nights like this happen,” Walker said.

The injury status of Edgecombe and Joel Embiid is uncertain, and Paul George doesn’t return from a 25-game suspension for banned substances until the end of the month. With so much in flux, the Sixers don’t quite know what the best version of their lineup is or what their rotation will look like during a potential playoff run.

In the interim, games like Wednesday’s win provide critical opportunities for bench players like Walker to show what they can do in an expanded role. Walker said he thought his scoring likely masked some improvements he needed to make defensively, but he believes there’s a role on this team for him, even when the team is healthy.

“If my minutes have to go down, I’ll take it,” Walker said. “That’s what I signed up for. That’s the role I knew I was getting into. We have great, great players, we’ve got Hall of Famers that have to come back, so somebody has to take those minutes, and these are guys that get paid to do so. My job is to fill in and do exactly what I’m doing while they’re out.”

Jabari Walker looked up at the scoreboard Wednesday night and accepted that the margin between the 76ers and lowly Utah Jazz remained close down the stretch.

So the Sixers tightened up defensively, allowing just two points in the final 4 minutes, 51 seconds. They got a go-ahead scoring burst from Quentin Grimes in the final minute. And the Xfinity Mobile Arena crowd collectively exhaled when Utah’s Kyle Filipowski missed a three-pointer as the Sixers to escaped with a 106-102 victory.

The Sixers were severely shorthanded Wednesday, with rookie standout VJ Edgecombe (back bruise) joining the list of absent players that already included Joel Embiid (oblique strain), Paul George (suspension), and Kelly Oubre Jr. (illness). Yet they were facing an 18-44 Utah squad that recently was fined by the NBA for blatantly “tanking,” or attempting to lose to improve its draft lottery odds.

That Wednesday’s matchup went down to the wire could be characterized by outsiders as uninspired at best and flirting with an inexcusable disaster at worst. Coach Nick Nurse and All-Star point guard Tyrese Maxey, however, offered a different viewpoint.

“That’s a hell of a win, considering all the guys out,” Nurse said. “… We don’t care what they look like. Just pick off a win here and there.”

Added Maxey: “I’m living with where we’re at. I’m happy with where we’re at right now.”

The “win is a win” cliche is particularly true right now for the 34-28 Sixers, who cling to the sixth seed in a bunched-up middle of the Eastern Conference standings with 20 games remaining. The team that finishes in that spot will advance directly to the playoffs’ first round, while the teams that finish seventh through 10th must earn a spot through the play-in tournament.

Following Tuesday’s 40-point faceplant against the San Antonio Spurs, which Grimes described as “kind of embarrassing,” the Sixers’ lead in the standings dwindled to a half-game on the seventh-seeded Orlando Magic and eighth-seeded Miami Heat. Wednesday’s victory bumped that margin back up to a full game and moved the Sixers to 1½ games behind the fifth-seeded Toronto Raptors.

The Sixers are 4-4 since the All-Star break, including impressive victories at the Minnesota Timberwolves and against the Heat but a horrid loss at the New Orleans Pelicans. All of those games have been played without George, whose suspension spans 10 more games, while six have been missing Embiid, whose recent injuries also include a stress reaction in his shin.

Maxey acknowledged after Tuesday’s blowout that the vibes have been up and down since the trade deadline, even directly addressing that he and the Sixers “miss” Jared McCain, who was dealt to the league-leading Oklahoma City Thunder.

“You can’t dwell on that,” Maxey said. “You’ve got to focus on the people that’s in this building. These are the people that are going to be with you for the rest of this season. …

“If you want to try to make a run at doing something special, then you’ve got to focus on that.”

After getting smacked by the Spurs, a home matchup against the Jazz appeared to be an ideal bounce back opportunity. Yet two nights prior, Utah hung with the Denver Nuggets, widely considered a Finals contender, before losing, 128-125. And after deliberately resting key players in prior fourth quarters, coach Will Hardy subbed his starters back in for Wednesday’s stretch run against the Sixers.

“They’re playing hard, and they’re playing the right way,” Maxey said of the Jazz. “You’ve got to actually beat them. They’re not just going to let you.”

The Sixers needed a massive boost from reserve big man Jabari Walker, who made his first six shots (including 4-of-4 from three-point range) and finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds. And legitimate guard minutes from recent two-way signee Tyrese Martin (eight points, two rebounds, two assists), whose play Nurse described as “just a little shy [of] excellent,” and Kyle Lowry, the pseudo-assistant coach who previously had played seven games all season.

Nurse started Adem Bona at center instead of Andre Drummond, who typically had held that role when Embiid was out but has been ineffective recently. Grimes became the Sixers’ closer, breaking down his defender to convert a layup and draw a foul on a nearly identical play.

“My teammates have a lot of trust in me,” Grimes said, “and my coaches have a lot of trust in me to make those plays.”

The Sixers’ opponents get significantly tougher from here. Up next is a Saturday trip to the Atlanta Hawks, who have already beaten the Sixers three times and have motivation to claw out of the East’s No. 10 seed. During the next week, the Sixers also will visit the Cleveland Cavaliers, who acquired former Sixer James Harden at the trade deadline and have ascended to the East’s fourth seed, along with the top-seeded Detroit Pistons.

As a tuneup for that rugged stretch, Wednesday’s outing against the Jazz was far from aesthetically pleasing. Yet the shorthanded Sixers won to keep their grip on the sixth seed, and Maxey will live with that for now.

“Guys took it personal at the end,” Walker said. “We knew how important this was for us, and we acted as professionals and got it done. …

“When it was crunch time, we locked in. We’ll learn a lot from this, but this was a big one of us.”