PHILADELPHIA — For all the injuries and intimations of internal discord, optimism remains the tone that the 76ers are projecting out into the world. Pay no attention to the ticking clock or the 2-12 record.
By hosting the Nets Friday night, the Sixers were starting a quest to rectify that record, though this start again wouldn’t include either Joel Embiid or Paul George, who both sat out due to their shared knee woes. But with Tyrese Maxey ready to go against Ben Simmons and the indifferent Nets … well, the Sixers have to start winning at some point, right?
“The main focus is not to give up, just to stay together,” Guerschon Yabusele said after shootaround at the Center. “We will figure out the situation. We have to go over there, make the effort, stay together and just fight. It will definitely turn.”
First, that might require the injury luck turning. An MRI Thursday showed no structural damage to George’s left knee. He’ll be re-evaluated Monday, meaning he’ll miss Friday’s game and Sunday’s visit from the Clippers.
Embiid was listed as questionable Friday morning with left knee injury management. He was subsequently downgraded to out. The 76ers were also without Kyle Lowry, missing a second straight game with a right hip strain.
With a three-game homestand that concludes Wednesday with Houston, the Eastern Conference basement dwellers have a chance to start some momentum if they look at all like the team that went 29-7 last year with Embiid and Maxey in the lineup. That their wretched start has them just 3.5 games out of a playoff spot and four away from sixth place should offer solace.
But a team accustomed to losing in new and maddening ways has to, well, do less of that.
“I feel like we’ve just got to figure it out,” Yabusele said. “We have film about what’s going wrong, so we just try to correct it. I think tonight will be definitely another test for us, at home against the Nets. We have to show more effort and more fight.”
The injuries are an obvious impediment. The Sixers have had just four players appear in all 14 games. Caleb Martin leads the group with 13 starts. Embiid has played four games, George and Maxey eight each. They’ve been in the lineup together once – in Wednesday’s 117-111 loss to Memphis, before George’s injury.
That has created an ungodly amount of change on the court, Nick Nurse having dialed up 179 different five-man lineup combinations. That’s third-most in the NBA, behind Memphis’ 246 and 187 for the Suns. (For context, the Knicks have used only 73 combinations.)
The 76ers’ most frequent unit – Lowry, Andre Drummond, Maxey, Martin and Kelly Oubre Jr. – has played together for seven games and 47 minutes. It doesn’t help that the six Sixers lineups that have logged more than 20 minutes on court together are all negative in point differential, with that top unit at an average minus-2.6 per game.
Yabusele is emblematic of the change, having played extensively early as an undersized center before shifting as a floor-spacing four next to Embiid. The backcourt permutations are even more complex, with and without Maxey at point guard. That lack of continuity contributes to a team that is 28th in rebounding, 29th in 3-point shooting percentage and 30th in shooting percentage in the league, all with talent that should be much better than that.
Yet Yabusele, who is averaging 9.3 points and 4.8 rebounds while shooting 41.8 percent from 3-point range, feels it’s improving, if not yet to become victories.
“I really think it’s better,” he said. “If you take a look at the second half against Memphis, we really showed a different character. We defended more, really getting stops and even though they had the lead, we came back at the end of the game. Those are good things for sure.”
