The 76ers are winless when Joel Embiid, Paul George, and Tyrese Maxey play together.
It’s always a scary moment when Embiid falls on the court.
Eric Gordon can still shoot.
And the Sixers must get healthier for their upcoming five-game road trip.
Those things stood out in Tuesday’s 114-106 setback to the Brooklyn Nets at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Winless with star trio
The Sixers (16-12) know much of their success ultimately will depend on how they play when Embiid, George, and Maxey are available.
Well, let’s say they have a lot of work to do.
Tuesday’s loss dropped the Sixers to 0-3 this season in games in which all three play. They suffered a 142-134 double-overtime home loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Nov. 30. And the Sixers lost, 112-108, at home to the Los Angeles Lakers on Dec. 7.
The team was missing several rotation players because of illness and injury. The Nets (9-19) also have won two straight and six of nine games. However, with their best three players, the Sixers were expected to beat Brooklyn.
So what’s the next step to a victory?
“We all just got to figure out how to find rhythm, playing off one another,” George said.
But early Tuesday, the Sixers lacked ball movement. It was a game in which Embiid and George tried to get themselves going. Meanwhile, Maxey was a bystander, despite entering the game as the league’s third-leading scorer at 31.7 points.
He was scoreless on 0-for-1 shooting in the first quarter and finished with 13 points. He missed 11 of 14 shots — including all five of his three-pointers. Maxey also finished with three rebounds, two assists, four steals, and four turnovers.
Afterward, Maxey said he didn’t get into rhythm.
But was only getting one shot attempt in the first quarter a result of that? Or was that a matter of trying to get others involved?
“I feel like I was trying to make the right play,” he said. “But I got to stay aggressive.”
Embiid had 27 points on 8-for-13 shooting along with six rebounds, four assists, three turnovers, and two blocks. George had 19 points on 5-for-14 shooting to go with four rebounds, two assists, four steals, three turnovers, and two blocks.
As a team, the Sixers shot 40.7% — including making just 7 of 27 three-pointers. They also committed 17 turnovers.
“Just being stagnant,” George said of what led to the Sixers’ struggles. “We got stagnant, loss of rhythm, team-wise. And we just played slow. I think our pace was a little slow, which, give them credit. They were making shots, which made it tough to get out, and play, and run fast.”
Embiid scare
Embiid went back to the locker room after falling to the court 25 seconds into the second half after being fouled by Terance Mann. It initially appeared that Embiid turned his ankle. However, he reached down and grabbed his right knee.
The 7-foot-2, 280-pounder returned with 6 minutes, 49 seconds remaining in the quarter. Embiid has already missed 16 games this season because of injuries to both knees. The Sixers had to be elated that this wasn’t serious.
Embiid returned to the bench midway through the quarter with both of his knees wrapped.
“Just hyperextended it,” Embiid said. “Went to the locker room, checked it out, and we’ll see how I feel.”
Before the injury, he was off to a solid start, with 19 first-half points on 7-for-10 shooting.
Embiid had missed the previous two games because of an illness and right knee injury management.
“It’s all right,” he said of his hyperextension. “We’ll see how it feels. Obviously, when you’re hurt, it’s kinda hard to judge, so we’ll see how it feels tomorrow.”
Gordon is still a sharpshooter
Gordon, who turns 37 on Christmas Day, has had a solid NBA career. But now in his 18th season, the shooting guard rarely plays because the Sixers have younger, more athletic guards in Maxey (25), VJ Edgecombe (20), Quentin Grimes (25), and Jared McCain (21).
While he’s not as mobile as before, Father Time has not impacted Gordon’s shooting. He shot 61.5% from the field and 62.5% on three-pointers in his first five appearances of the season.
He made his sixth appearance on Tuesday with Edgecombe and Grimes sidelined by an illness.
And Gordon again had a solid shooting night.
He finished with a season-high 12 points on 4-for-8 shooting. He made his first three shots.
The Indianapolis native entered the game with 3:56 left in the first quarter. He made a layup at the 3:00 mark. Then he drained a three-pointer to tie the score at 27 with 16 seconds left in the frame. He hit his third shot attempt, a three-pointer that gave the Sixers a five-point cushion, 1:28 into the second quarter.
He added a three-pointer in the final second of the third quarter.
“I’m going to be ready for whatever opportunity comes,” Gordon said. “I played in this league for a long time. I can still move. I can still shoot. I can still create my own shot. I don’t know, maybe we will see when the times get harder, play against tougher teams, or whatnot.
“But I know we got a lot of young guys that we need to continue to play and whatnot. I’ll just be ready when it’s my time because I know I can fit in and gel with these guys and keep the floor open for these guys. As you can see, whether I play, miss 10 games and don’t play, come in, you know, I’m still going to be ready to go.”
A need to get healthy
Before the game, the Sixers were excited to have Embiid, Maxey, and George together on the floor.
But they didn’t like the fact that several of their key rotation players were sidelined.
Kelly Oubre Jr. (left knee LCL sprain) and Trendon Watford (left adductor strain) have been out for several weeks. Dominick Barlow also missed Tuesday’s game because of illness.
With Edgecombe and Barlow sidelined, the Sixers started McCain and Jabari Walker alongside Embiid, George, and Maxey.
Grimes and Barlow initially were listed as questionable on Monday evening’s initial injury report. The team announced Tuesday morning that Edgecombe also was questionable. Moments later, they canceled the morning shootaround.
But the team has been dealing with illness for a couple of weeks.
Maxey missed the Sixers’ games against the Indiana Pacers (Dec. 12) and Hawks (Dec. 14) with an illness. Embiid sat out both games of Friday and Saturday’s back-to-back against the New York Knicks and Dallas Mavericks with an illness and right knee injury management.
“It has kind of gone for a bit,” coach Nick Nurse said. “It probably started with Tyrese, but that would seem to be an isolated case, and now it’s kind of making its way a little bit, obviously. The guys that weren’t feeling great yesterday didn’t report to practice. This morning, when we didn’t see much improvement and added another to the list, we postponed shootaround, as you guys well know. You probably would have been here this morning. Just keeping the guys away until we can bring them to the game.”
The Sixers can only hope Edgecombe, Grimes, and Barlow are back when they embark on their five-game road trip against the Chicago Bulls (Friday), Oklahoma City Thunder (Sunday), Memphis Grizzlies (Dec. 30), Dallas Mavericks (Jan. 1), and New York Knicks (Jan. 3).
With the trio out, Justin Edwards was the sixth man. Gordon was the seventh man, and Kyle Lowry was the ninth. This was the fifth game for the 39-year-old Lowry, who’s in his 20th NBA season.
“You know what we missed? We missed three athletes,” Nurse said. “Other than Tyrese, that’s our speed, right there. We got Q, explosive. Barlow, athlete. VJ, athlete that we [depend on]. We missed all three of them. And it kind of made it hard for Tyrese to not … have other guy [Edgecombe] out there to crack into the paint a little bit and do some of the things that VJ does for sure.”
This was a bad loss to a team over which the Sixers had averaged 18-point victories in their first two meetings.
“They were definitely missed,” George said. “Their energy, their extra plays. Those guys have a great feel for the game and just understanding where to be the defensive mindset. So they were for sure missed.
“But, you know, this is a very winnable game with [the Nets also being] down [players.] So you can’t make excuses that they weren’t there.”
