VJ Edgecombe (back bruise) and Kelly Oubre Jr. (illness) will miss Wednesday’s 76ers home game against the Utah Jazz, according to the NBA’s injury report released Wednesday afternoon.
Edgecombe’s injury occurred in the final seconds of the first half of Tuesday’s blowout loss to the San Antonio Spurs, when he took a hard fall as San Antonio’s Carter Bryant fouled him on a three-point attempt. Edgecombe, one of the NBA’s top rookies, laid on the floor in visible discomfort before getting up to make all three free throws, but at halftime was ruled out for the rest of the game with back soreness. An MRI Wednesday confirmed the lumbar contusion, and he will be reevaluated before the Sixers’ next game on Saturday at Atlanta, the team said.
Before this absence, Edgecombe had played in 57 of the Sixers’ 61 games and had not been sidelined since a Dec. 23 matchup against the Brooklyn Nets with an illness. He enters Wednesday averaging 15.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game and ranks eighth in the league in minutes played (35.1 per game).
Oubre also missed Tuesday’s loss to the Spurs with his illness. The starting wing has been enjoying one of the best seasons of his 11-year NBA career. Oubre was averaging 14.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.3 steals in 38 games entering Wednesday, while often taking a challenging perimeter defensive assignment. He has increased his three-point shooting to 37.2%.
Combo Quentin Grimes started in place of Oubre on Tuesday, while second-year wing Justin Edwards reentered the rotation.
The new absences leave the Sixers without four regular starters against the “tanking” Jazz. Former NBA Most Valuable Player Joel Embiid will miss at least one more game with an oblique strain, and Paul George remains suspended for violating the NBA’s anti-drug policy.
Following Wednesday’s matchup against Utah, the Sixers have two days off before road games at Atlanta on Saturday and in Cleveland against the Cavaliers on Monday.
In the final seconds of the second quarter of Tuesday’s blowout loss to the Spurs, VJ Edgecombe took a hard foul after San Antonio’s Carter Bryant tried to block his shot before the final buzzer. Edgecombe fell to the court and was down in pain for several seconds, before bouncing back to make two of his three free-throw attempts.
But Edgecombe did not return and was ruled out after halftime because of lower back soreness. He finished with six points and four rebounds in 19 minutes, 38 seconds.
The Sixers returned to the court less than 24 hours later for the second half of a back-to-back against Utah (7:30 p.m., NBCSP), and they’ll be without Edgecombe. Nick Nurse did not have an update on Edgecombe’s status immediately after the loss to the Spurs, but the team announced Wednesday that the rookie suffered a lumbar contusion and will miss their game against the Jazz. He will be reevaluated before Saturday’s game against the Hawks.
VJ Edgecombe lands hard on his back after this contest by Carter Bryant. Will be curious to see if he plays in the second half with the Sixers down 25 at halftime. pic.twitter.com/sfEOPKmy0j
Tyrese Maxey, after being pulled from the game midway through the third quarter, spent the rest of the period with Edgecombe in the locker room. He said he’d call him Tuesday night for another update.
“No one likes getting hurt, but he’s the same, smiling, happy,” Maxey said. “We had a good conversation. That’s my little bro. I’m going to check on him. I couldn’t continue the game without checking on him.”
Before Edgecombe’s injury, the Sixers already were missing Joel Embiid, who will miss at least the next two games with a right oblique strain, and Kelly Oubre Jr., who was ill. The team also is without Paul George as he serves a 25-game suspension for taking a banned substance.
Losing Edgecombe even just for a day could have a big ripple effect on games to come.
The Sixers entered Wednesday in sixth place in the Eastern Conference, just a half-game ahead of the seventh-place Orlando Magic.
Since January, the Sixers have gone 2-9 without Embiid, whose availability remains uncertain. And Edgecombe, who has played 57 of the Sixers’ 61 games, has been a workhorse. He is averaging 15.3 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 3.9 assists in his rookie season. He’s the team’s fourth-leading scorer, behind Maxey, Embiid, and George. He’s also among the NBA leaders in minutes at 35.1 minutes per game, trailing only Maxey’s league-leading average of 38.3 minutes among Sixers.
Without Edgecombe or Embiid, even more offensive responsibility will fall on Maxey’s shoulders.
“We’re going to keep pushing,” Maxey said. “I’m going to be here every night, as long as I can move around and try to play and do those different things. I’m fighting through the adversity. I’ll be here and try to keep leading this group.”
Andre Drummond was in the 76ers’ locker room after shootaround on Tuesday when a couple of his younger teammates approached the center about his recent shoe deal news.
“All the young guys are already asking me for shoes like, ‘Yo, you signing guys?’” Drummond said with a laugh during a video call with The Inquirer. “I said, ‘Listen, man, I just announced it yesterday. Let me get my things in the works.’”
Drummond’s teammates were referring the Sixers center’s big news, which was announced a day earlier. The 14-year NBA veteran joined Stria Sport, a Chicago-based apparel and shoe company, as the company’s creative director and investor. Stria Sport, founded by Eric Porter in 2021, is described as an “athlete led performance, footwear, and apparel brand,” and has its roots in basketball, but has also released walking and pickleball shoes.
When his deal with the Jordan Brand was set to end two and a half years ago, Drummond, a two-time All-Star, began searching for his next move and had one goal in mind for his next sports apparel deal.
“I always had this dream in my mind of getting my signature shoe and I’m like, ‘Damn, how do I get to this goal?’ And it’s not going to get it through Nike, obviously, they have a ton of guys already. Jordan already has a ton of signature athletes already. I was with Adidas already,” Drummond explained. “I don’t think people in general understand how difficult it is to have your own signature shoe. And not only just one, having your own signature, but two, getting it to sell.”
As Drummond scrolled social media, he noticed that his stepbrother, Xavier Rathan-Mayes, who plays professional basketball overseas, was a Stria Sport athlete and thought his shoes “were kind of cool.” He quickly sent out a message to Porter, but Drummond says the timing wasn’t yet right for a partnership.
A few months ago, Porter reconnected with Drummond to offer the Sixers’ center an opportunity to have a signature shoe and an equity stake in Stria Sport, which is also the official performance shoe for the Harlem Globetrotters’ 100th season. Drummond called the proposal “a home run.”
Eric Porter (left) and Andre Drummond will work together closely on Porter’s brand Stria Sport.
“We’ve been very patient on who we want to partner with,” Porter said. “We spent the last couple years really laying out our foundation of where we really want to take this thing and what is our niche. To me, we’re partnering with Andre Drummond the creative, more than just the basketball player. … Very few people make [it to] the NBA, and he’s worn all these brands. And who else would you rather get information from than someone who’s been doing this their entire life? And so it’s exciting that he gets to bring his experience with my experience, and we’re teaming up.
“This isn’t just a shoe endorsement deal or he has equity. It’s, he’s going to be overseeing everything, and that’s what he had asked. He was like, ‘I don’t want to just do my own shoe, and that’s it. He wants to be a part of it all.’”
For Drummond, who is averaging 6.8 points and 8.6 rebounds across 46 games for the Sixers, the opportunity to be hands-on in the process of creating a signature shoes and building up the brand was a key part of joining Stria Sport. He’ll be a key decision maker for not only the brand’s basketball division, but will work directly with its pickleball players, including Gabe Tardio, the No. 1 ranked men’s doubles pickleball player in the world.
Beyond having a signature shoe, Drummond says he wants “to fully immerse myself and truly show the brand that I believe in it.”
“This is something I want to pass down to [my kids]. It’d be cool for them they play basketball to have their own shoe. Who can say that?” Drummond said. “That’s when people can go to school and say, ‘Damn, I got my own shoe. Like, my dad owns a shoe company.’ Like, that’s not normal. So for me, that’s how I envision it. I’m thinking about the later in life.
“It’s about building a community, building something that’s way bigger than the Andre Drummond brand … I’m not doing it to get fans. I’m not doing it for people to just buy my shoe. I want to build a real, organic community of people who genuinely care about what this brand is about.”
Andre Drummond signed on with Stria Sport on Monday as the company’s creative director.
The next step for Drummond and Porter is creating a signature shoe for the 6-foot-11 center, which they say is already in “the design and development stage now.” Drummond, who will be an unrestricted free agent this year, hopes to unveil the shoe by the beginning of the next NBA season, with plans to tease the shoe throughout the summer and training camp.
There are also plans for Drummond and Porter to expand and bring on more athletes down the line, too.
“People want to be different, and not everyone wants to wear what everyone else is wearing. And that’s where we’ve had our success,” Porter said. “The notion of being different, and having the confidence to wear something that no one else is wearing, or because we’re a smaller brand giving us a chance. We’re confident in what we’re making, I think what we have in the works right now over the next 12 months, is really exciting.
“We are going to look to grow, whether it’s bringing on more athletes, signing teams, groups. All of that is in the works.”
Tyrese Maxey tried to explain to rookie teammate VJ Edgecombe that, in matching up against the towering Victor Wembanyama, “TV don’t do him justice.”
Yet Edgecombe still needed to experience life against the 7-foot-4 San Antonio Spurs superstar for himself. Edgecombe, a typically fearless athlete, got an early taste when he attempted to drive into the paint and visibly hesitated, as if uttering a massive “nope!” with Wembanyama lurking at the rim.
Wembanyama’s presence contributed to the 76ers’ early deficit in a 131-91 loss Tuesday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena. It again exposed the Sixers’ center conundrum without star Joel Embiid, who missed a second consecutive game with an oblique strain. And the game got so out of hand that Wembanyama only needed to play 24 minutes, 7 seconds, yet still stuffed the box score with 10 points on 3-of-5 shooting, eight rebounds, four assists, six blocks, and three steals.
So what does it feel like to (try to) face Wembanyama, anyway?
Wembanyama was different the instant he entered the NBA as the first overall draft pick of the 2023 draft, with that height and wingspan blended with athleticism and blossoming skill on both ends of the floor. Sixers starting forward Dominick Barlow, who spent his first two NBA seasons with San Antonio, described a then-rookie Wembanyama as “phenomenal” and already “one of the best I’ve ever been around.”
Now in his third season, Wembanyama has developed into an MVP candidate and Defensive Player of the Year front-runner for the surging Spurs (44-17), who have won 12 of their past 13 games and look like NBA Finals contenders.
The 22-year-old delivered highlights, despite limited minutes in Tuesday’s nationally televised matchup, including a spinning dunk while rolling to the basket. Even when the Sixers (33-28) pulled off a positive play against him — when Edgecombe (who later left the game with back soreness) swiped the ball from Wembanyama’s grasp and sent a slick pass to Maxey for a finish in transition — Wembanyama came right back with an emphatic alley-oop dunk.
And Wembanyama quickly torched fill-in starting center Andre Drummond, who lasted less than six minutes of game action and was a stunning minus-14.
In the game’s first minute, Wembanyama stuffed the typically imposing 6-foot-10 Drummond at the rim. Drummond then picked up two fouls in eight seconds, sending him to the bench for the remainder of the first quarter. Drummond missed all four of his three-point attempts and finished 1 of 7 from the floor.
When asked what makes Wembanyama special besides his physical stature, Drummond said, “Especially when you have that type of stardom, you can kind of do whatever you want.”
“He gets touched, he gets a foul call,” Drummond said. “That’s not an excuse. You’ve got to find ways to stop those types of players.”
The early whistles on Drummond meant the Sixers needed to turn to Bona, whose priority was to not commit any “dumb fouls,” he said. Though the second-year big man performed admirably in his first stint (four points, two rebounds) and then started the second half, the game unraveled too quickly for that to register. He finished with six points and six rebounds in 22:09.
Beyond those center matchups, there were subtle (and glaring) ways Wembanyama impacted a Sixers offense that shot 34.7% from the floor and 10 of 42 from three-point range.
They entered Tuesday hoping to draw on their experience with opposing centers leaving Barlow free outside the three-point arc, which Wembanyama often does against nonshooters to remain near the basket. Coach Nick Nurse believed his team did a “decent job finding shots” early, though creating those looks via kick-out passes required patience as seconds ticked off the shot clock.
Maxey added that the Sixers needed to “just live with certain shots,” particularly in the corner. The rare instances in which Maxey did get Wembanyama to switch onto guarding him, Maxey got to the rim because “the paint is wide-open.” But when Wembanyama lingered in the middle, it allowed opposing guards such as Stephon Castle — a dynamite defender in his own right — to pressure Maxey aggressively.
Maxey compared the approach to Embiid’s defensive prime, when the Sixers’ perimeter players felt free to ramp up their on-ball intensity because of the anchor behind them.
The Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama blocks a shot (one of six on the night) by Tyrese Maxey.
“It took [the Spurs] a couple years to kind of learn that and kind of figure out how to build a defensive system around [Wembanyama],” said Maxey, who finished with 21 points on 8-of-19 shooting and eight rebounds. “And they have, and it makes them better. …
“What [the guards] want you to do is try to go by them, and they know they got Wemby down there. That’s a good strategy.”
Nurse most lamented the Sixers’ dreadful second quarter when his team “didn’t do anything very well” and offered “no resistance defensively.” The Spurs scored 46 points on 73.9% shooting from the field, while the Sixers went 1 of 9 from long range and committed five turnovers.
It’s why the score was lopsided by halftime. And why Wembanyama could watch from the bench by the 4:21 mark of the third quarter, his night complete.
The Sixers will see Wembanyama again on April 6 when they visit San Antonio, Texas, for a matchup that could be crucial in determining playoff seeding in a tight middle of the Eastern Conference.
And now their full roster knows what it feels like to face the towering MVP candidate in real life, since, per Maxey, watching him on television does not do him justice.
“It probably takes a little bit to get used to,” Nurse said, “to figure out what you’re going to do.”
From the retro opening to the “Roundball Rock” theme to the 1990s-style graphics, everything NBC put together was pitch perfect. Even the retro scorebug captured the feel of NBC’s heyday covering the league in the 1990s and early 2000s, though back then the network didn’t keep the score on the screen out of fear of driving viewers away during blowouts like Tuesday night.
ROUNDBALL ROCK INTO BOB COSTAS CALLING PLAY-BY-PLAY! Feels like the old days. 👏
In their first season broadcasting NBA games since 2002, NBC assembled a who’s who of former talent for Tuesday’s broadcast. Bob Costas, calling his first NBA game in 24 years, ably weaved back and forth from nostalgia to the action on the court, at least until the Spurs put the game out of reach in the third quarter.
“It’s been nothing but pain for the Sixers tonight,” Costas said alongside longtime NBA analysts and former coaches Mike Fratello and Doug Collins.
Costas also managed to squeeze the line “Two great Dicks” into the broadcast, referencing famed sportscaster Dick Enberg and former NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol.
“Two great Richards,” Costas jokingly added.
Bob Costas knew right away what happened when he paid tribute to "two great Dicks" at NBC in Dick Ebersol and Dick Enberg during the Spurs blowout over the 76ers.
Initially, NBC planned to bring back Marv Albert, but the iconic NBA announcer had some health issues related to his voice and was unable to participate.
Former NBC host and reporter Ahmad Rashad (who once played a preseason game for the Sixers alongside Charles Barkley) also wasn’t part of the broadcast. It’s not clear why Rashad wasn’t in South Philly alongside his former colleagues Tuesday night, but Costas gave him a special shoutout during the broadcast.
“One of my favorite people I ever worked with in any sport,” Costas said. “Great company, terrific sense of humor. A lifelong friend.”
The connections past and present were everywhere. Sixers point guard Kyle Lowry, among the few players on the court old enough to have watched the NBA in the 1990s, was drafted by NBC analyst Mike Fratello when he was still head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies in 2006.
Heading into halftime, Spurs point guard Dylan Harper was interviewed by longtime NBC reporter Jim Gray, who interviewed Harper’s father, five-time NBA champion Ron Harper, many times over the years.
“It really is Throwback Tuesday now,” Costas joked during the broadcast. “We’re now talking to the sons of guys we covered.”
Doug Collins should be calling more NBA games
Doug Collins speacks to NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Ashlyn Sullivan ahead of Tuesday’s Sixers-Spurs game.
As far as the nuts and bolts of the broadcast, Collins was on top of things all night. In the first quarter, the former Sixers player and head coach quickly pointed out after a Wembanyama block it was the 24th game this season he’s had at least three blocks, leading the NBA.
Later in the first half, when Costas mentioned the Thunder as one of the few teams that might challenge the Spurs in the playoffs, Collins quickly noted San Antonio won four of their five games against Oklahoma City this season.
During the second half, with the game well out of reach for the Sixers, Collins recalled back to his own coaching days trying to get thrown out of a game he could no longer watch.
“One of the old-time referees ran by the bench, stopped me, and said, ‘Listen, I know what your doing. You’re trying to get thrown out. You’re going to stay here and watch the same crap I’m watching,’” Collins recalled. “I couldn’t even get thrown out!”
In recent years, Collins has divided his time between homes in Arizona and West Chester, where he’s able to watch his grandchildren play basketball. Collins said he’d love to come back and call more games, but some health issues with his feet and legs have held him back.
Interestingly, a lot of Sixers fans probably missed NBC’s throwback coverage, since NBC Sports Philadelphia’s broadcast was a strictly 21st century production featuring regular announcers Kate Scott and Alaa Abdelnaby. But most viewers probably changed the channel by the third quarter anyway.
Scott and Abdelnaby will be back Wednesday to call the Sixers’ game against the Utah Jazz at 7:30 p.m. on NBC Sports Philadelphia.
Sixers standings
Eastern Conference
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Upcoming Sixers TV schedule
Wednesday: Jazz at Sixers, 7:30 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)
Saturday: Sixers at Hawks, 6 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia, NBA TV)
Monday: Sixers at Cavaliers, 7 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)
Tuesday, March 10: Grizzlies at Sixers, 7 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)
Thursday, March 12: Sixers at Pistons, 7 p.m. (Amazon Prime Video)
Saturday, March 14: Nets at Sixers, 1 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)
Sunday, March 15: Trail Blazers at Sixers, 6 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)
Dylan Harper scored 22 points and Victor Wembanyama needed only 10 to help the San Antonio Spurs bounce back from their first loss in 12 games and rout the 76ers 131-91 on Tuesday night.
The Spurs hit 18 three-pointers and wrapped their annual rodeo road trip with a 5-1 record. They had won 11 straight games overall before they lost Sunday to the New York Knicks.
There were no worries in Philly about a losing streak. San Antonio never trailed and led by 49 points at the end of the third quarter.
Devin Vassell hit six three-pointers and scored 22 points for the Spurs.
Tyrese Maxey scored 21 points for the Sixers. They scored only 11 points total in the third quarter.
The Sixers played again without Joel Embiid as he sat out the second of a scheduled three straight games with a strained right oblique. The 76ers were also without the suspended Paul George and Kelly Oubre Jr. (illness), which left them undermanned and greatly overwhelmed from tip against the superior Spurs.
The Sixers lost VJ Edgecombe after he had a hard landing on his back on a three-point attempt in the first half.
The Spurs put on a show in front of Bob Costas, Doug Collins and more familiar broadcasters as part of a throwback night for NBC’s NBA coverage.
Sixers’ Adem Bona (right) and Spurs’ Luke Kornet battle for the ball in the first half of Tuesday’s game.
The Sixers would like to throw this one back.
Carter Bryant buried a three for to push San Antonio’s lead to 60-36 in the first half and the Sixers were booed off the court headed into a timeout. Harper scored 14 points in the half to take a 78-53 lead — all done without forward Harrison Barnes, who had his 364 consecutive games played streak end when he woke up from a nap with a sore ankle.
The Sixers host the Utah Jazz on Wednesday (7:30 p.m., NBCSP) for the second night of a back-to-back.
Kelly Oubre Jr. will miss the 76ers’ home game Tuesday against the San Antonio Spurs with an illness, per the NBA’s injury report.
Oubre, a starting wing, has been enjoying one of the best seasons of his 11-year NBA career. He is averaging 14.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.3 steals in 38 games, while often taking a challenging perimeter defensive assignment. He has increased his three-point shooting to 37.2%.
Without Oubre, combo guard Quentin Grimes will slide into the starting lineup. Second-year wing Justin Edwards will “for sure” reenter the rotation, coach Nick Nurse said during his pregame news conference.
The Sixers also will play against the 43-17 Spurs without Joel Embiid (oblique) and Paul George (suspension).
The last time Doug Collins called the Sixers on NBC Philly, the team was playing in the NBA Finals and some guy named Allen Iverson was dominating the court.
Fast-forward 25 years and NBC is bringing NBA Hall of Famer Collins back to Philadelphia to call the network’s Coast 2 Coast Tuesday night game against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs.
Collins will be joined on the call by Bob Costas and Mike Fratello — the “Czar of the Telestrator” — in yet another callback to the heyday of the NBA on NBC.
Jim Gray will return to report court side from the recently renamed Xfinity Mobile Arena. NBC’s studio coverage will be handled by Hannah Storm (on loan from ESPN), Isiah Thomas, and P.J. Carlesimo, who nearly joined the Sixers’ coaching staff a decade ago.
Doug Collin and Bob Costas called NBA games together during the late 1990s and early 2000s on NBC.
Costas stopped calling MLB games in 2024 because he felt he wasn’t as good as decades prior. He said he was comfortable returning to do play-by-play for Tuesday’s game because the tone of the broadcast will be more conversational, leaning heavy on NBC’s history broadcasting the league and the unending list of stories Fratello and Collins can tell.
“I know we can accomplish that,” Costas said. “How much of the nuts and bolts of the play-by-play I can nail? Well, we’ll see.”
Collins and Costas share more than their time together in the booth. During Collins’ days playing college ball at Illinois State, he remembers two young girls around who where big fans and would come to games dressed as cheerleaders.
One of those girls — Jill — happens to be Costas’ wife. And her brother, Doug, is named after Collins.
“How about that?” a laughing Collins said. “So I have a connection with Bob that goes far deeper with our friendship and all.”
It’s more than a broadcasting homecoming for Collins. The Sixers took him with the No. 1 pick in the 1973 NBA draft, though his career was shortened by a series of injuries beginning in 1979. The team later brought him back to coach from 2010 to 2013.
When Matt Guokas left Channel 17 to join Billy Cunningham’s staff in 1982, Collins jumped to TV and replaced him during the regular season alongside Andy Musser, and later called playoff games on CBS. From there he ping-ponged between coaching and calling games, first for NBC and later TNT and ESPN.
“I spent 13 years of my life with the 76ers,” Collins said. “I’m not sure there are a lot of people who have been a former player, broadcaster, then coached” for the same team.
Collins had a year remaining on his contract when he stepped down as head coach of the Sixers in 2013, knowing the team was headed for a rebuild. His tenure is best remembered for Andrew Bynum, who never played a game after the Sixers traded for him in 2012. It was that failed trade that set off “The Process” and years of endless losses, landing the Sixers Joel Embiid but not much else.
“Through the years, they’ve had number one picks and all, but they’ve never really had a sidekick for Joel,” Collins said. “Now they have Maxey, and I think people are going to sleep on the Sixers. They can light that scoreboard up if Joel isn’t playing.”
While Tuesday’s throwback game is a who’s who of famed NBC talent, there are some notable omissions. Not joining the broadcast will be legendary NBA voice Marv Albert, who was alongside Collins during the 2001 NBA Finals.
Initially, the plan was for NBC to carry the retro theme across a doubleheader, with Albert and Fratello calling Sixers-Spurs and Collins and Costas covering the Phoenix Suns vs. the Sacramento Kings. But Collins said Albert has a health situation with his voice, shifting plans to a three-man booth.
Peter Vecsey, who worked as a reporter and analyst on NBA games for NBC, also isn’t on the lengthy guest sheet for Tuesday night’s throwback game. Vecsey wrote on social media he wasn’t invited to participate, which he called “complete disrespect” from NBC.
The network plans to produce more comeback games in future seasons, executive producer Sam Flood said, though he stopped short of saying who would be offered a chance to participate.
“Not everyone was able to join us this year, but there will be invites to plenty of other former NBA stars as time goes forward,” Flood said during a conference call.
NBC is scheduled to air one more Sixers game this season — March 17 on the road against the Denver Nuggets. There’s also a Peacock exclusive on March 30 against the Miami Heat, though the game is also scheduled to air on the relaunched NBC Sports Network.
Sixers standings
Eastern Conference
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BOSTON — After learning of the right oblique strain that will sideline Joel Embiid through at least Wednesday, Andre Drummond told The Inquirer that he wanted to “wrap him in a bubble sheet and give him a hug, man.”
“I just feel like he can’t get a break,” Drummond added of Embiid’s seemingly never-ending string of injuries.
Embiid’s importance to the 76ers was magnified in Sunday night’s 114-98 loss at the Celtics. The Sixers allowed a career-best 27 points, 17 rebounds, and three blocks to Neemias Queta, who is enjoying a wonderful season for the surprising Celtics but is not exactly regarded as a dominant interior force. The Sixers were blasted in the rebounding category, 59-37, including surrendering 19 offensive boards that Boston turned into 30 second-chance points.
And those harrowing numbers come one game before Tuesday’s home matchup against Victor Wembanyama, the 7-foot-4 NBA MVP contender, and the 43-17 San Antonio Spurs.
“It was frustrating for me,” Drummond said of Sunday’s sharp rebounding discrepancy, “because, like, I see them and I’m like, ‘[Expletive], I’m a little too close to the rim’ and it’s bouncing over my head. It’s one of those annoying games where you see it, and it’s just out of reach. …
“It just felt like everything we did, it just didn’t work.”
Embiid, in a clear attempt to protect his knees by limiting jumping, is not the rebounder or defensive anchor he once was. Yet he flashed an intimidating presence while averaging 30 points, eight rebounds, 4.5 assists, and one block during a 20-game, month-plus stretch before these latest injuries to his oblique, shin, and knee.
Celtics center Neemias Queta, dunking on the Sixers’ Dominick Barlow, had a career-best 27 points and 17 rebounds in a win on Sunday.
In Embiid’s absence Sunday, coach Nick Nurse again turned to the center pecking order of starting Drummond, who does not play when Embiid is healthy, and Adem Bona, who has typically been the backup whether Embiid plays or not.
Questions about rebounding have swirled around this Sixers roster, which lacked a traditional power forward, since media day more than five months ago. It was an emphasis for Nurse coming out of the All-Star break after the Sixers ranked 26th out of 30 NBA teams in defensive rebounding (31.1) during their first 54 games.
And Nurse said it was one of the keys to Sunday’s matchup at TD Garden, against a 40-20 Celtics team that exited the night ranked sixth in the league in overall rebounding (46.1 per game) and offensive boards (12.8 per game).
Nurse lamented that the Sixers (33-27) did not make enough shots — they went 39.8% from the floor, including 12 of 34 from All-Star point guard Tyrese Maxey — to control the boards. The Celtics, meanwhile, attempted 49 three-pointers, which often caused long and “funny” rebounds, Maxey said.
“Those are tough ones,” Maxey added. “ … If you’re not challenging [the shooter], we’ve got to try to come back and grab some of those. I got to run some of those down.”
But Queta, the fifth-year center averaging 9.8 points and 8.2 rebounds per game entering Sunday, was a beast inside. He totaled 16 points and 12 rebounds in the first half, earning a standing ovation from the home crowd when he checked out of the game in the second quarter.
Drummond, who was once off to a resurgent start but still has not looked the same physically since a late-November knee injury, said he was trying to “blitz” to get the ball out of the Celtics guards’ hands but struggled to move defensively.
Bona provided an energetic initial lift, but then picked up two fouls and never recaptured momentum. Nurse did not opt to go with smaller lineups, with either Dominick Barlow or Jabari Walker at center. Queta’s outing also arrived eight days after the non-Embiid Sixers allowed 37-year-old DeAndre Jordan, who had not played since Oct. 29, to amass 15 rebounds in the New Orleans victory over the Sixers.
Sixers center Andre Drummond exchanges some friendly banter with referee Nick Buchert after being called for a foul on Sunday in Boston.
“[The Celtics] made the right plays by giving [Queta] the ball,” Drummond said from his locker after the game, “and he did what he was supposed to do by finishing shots. He was around the rim getting offensive rebounds. I try to block him out, [and] those weird bounces would just fall in his hands, or it would get tipped to him somehow, some way. …
“[Crummy] that it happened against me, but whatever. It is what it is. He had a good game.”
It is possible that Queta learned some of those rebounding tips from Drummond, who said the two centers have shared a postgame chat after every matchup since the beginning of last season.
Drummond has told Queta that, at the end of each practice, he watches teammates shoot to learn “what type of misses they have” and how to position himself to, in his words, become “one of the best rebounders to play.”
“Use this as momentum and build on it,” Drummond told Queta after Sunday’s game. “You should feel good about yourself. It was a great game. You played well. Do it again.”
Queta’s final touches on his breakout night included blowing past Drummond for a one-handed dunk, before a spin and finish through contact put the Celtics up 106-97 with less than three minutes to play. Queta then corralled two game-sealing putbacks in the final two minutes, playfully shaking his head after the second conversion. The home fans serenaded Queta with “M-V-P” chants multiple times in the fourth quarter.
No disrespect to Queta, but Wembanyama is an actual MVP contender. The Spurs, who are 9-1 in their last 10 games, are an even better rebounding team, entering Monday ranked third in the league with 46.4 per game.
And the Sixers must face that matchup without Embiid. With or without bubble wrap.
“We’re going to have to figure out who to guard [Wenbanyama] with,” Nurse said. “It will probably be a number of guys to take that challenge.”
BOSTON — Neemias Queta scored a career-high 27 points and added 17 rebounds to help the Boston Celtics recover from a slow start and rally to beat the Philadelphia 76ers 114-98 on Sunday night.
Jaylen Brown added 27 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, and Derrick White finished with 21 points and eight assists as the Celtics became the fourth team to reach 40 victories. They have won six of seven.
It was the 11th double-double of the season for Queta, who also had three blocks. He has three double-doubles — with at least two blocks in each — over his last five games.
Philadelphia cut what was a 16-point lead by Boston in the second half to 103-97 with just over four minutes to play. But Queta scored Boston’s next eight points to put the Celtics in front 111-98 and help close it out.
Tyrese Maxey led the 76ers with 33 points and six assists. VJ Edgecombe added 23 points as Philadelphia’s three-game win streak was snapped.
With Queta leading the way, the Celtics used a 15-6 run to erase a 10-point, first-quarter deficit and took a 62-50 lead into halftime.
Baylor Scheierman, who played with a splint on the left thumb he fractured in Friday’s win over Brooklyn, gave a thumbs up after draining a corner 3-pointer at halftime buzzer off a feed from Brown.
Queta carried the early offensive load for the Celtics with 16 points, 10 rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block in just under 14 minutes in the first half.
Philadelphia led throughout the opening period and built as much as a 10-point edge while Boston shot just 30% from the field (8 for 26).
But the Celtics recovered, outscoring the 76ers 36-22 in the second quarter and never trailed again.
