Sixers head coach Nick Nurse’s post-practice media session Friday naturally drifted toward existential territory at times.
After starting the season with lofty expectations and three All-Star players, the Sixers embarked Friday on a three-game road trip to Indiana, Milwaukee and Denver. They are 15-24 and have lost four games in a row. Joel Embiid’s missed the last six and is again dealing with left knee swelling.
As Nurse acknowledged — with candor, and also with a laugh here and there — it’s not the sort of situation anyone would be thrilled to walk into day after day.
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“First of all, no matter what’s happening, you’ve got to try to keep the group together,” Nurse said. “And it isn’t just, ‘Come on, guys, let’s stick together.’ It’s a thought process, and the plan and the film. … You’re trying to keep that all glued together.
“And I think (the Embiid update) helps them a little bit clarity-wise. At least they can kind of process it for 24 hours rather than 35 minutes. … Again, you’re trying to work on the chemistry and the rhythm of what it’s going to look like. It does give them some clarity.
“But yeah, over the long haul, it’s taken some dings, and we’ve just got to make sure we stay together, stay strong, stay positive. That’s what I try to do. I try to stay positive and go to work — really work. I’m sure you have the same days too where you’re like, ‘Goddamn it, I’d rather not have to go practice.’ But you’ve got to snap out of it, get out on the floor, zip up the zipper and get ready to go, man. And staying positive is a big key for all of us.”
For the first game of the Sixers’ trip, Nurse knows he’ll still be without Embiid, Caleb Martin (right hip sprain), KJ Martin (left foot stress reaction), Kyle Lowry (right hip sprain) and Jared McCain (season-ending left lateral meniscus surgery).
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Nurse expected Andre Drummond to return from a six-game absence with a toe injury. The Sixers officially listed the veteran center as probable.
Guerschon Yabusele (right knee swelling) and Paul George (left groin tightness) were questionable. Yabusele’s the one Sixer to appear in all of the team’s games so far this season.
“He didn’t practice today,” Nurse said. “He had a knee-on-knee thing; everybody saw it in the game the other night (vs. the Knicks). There’s some next-day effects of that. We’ll hope that it calms down a little bit and he’s ready to go, but he’s on the questionable list.”
Any new injury absence hurts these days for a Sixers team that hasn’t won since scraping past the 6-33 Wizards last Wednesday.
Though almost none of the season has unfolded as planned, Drummond’s return should, on paper, shore up some key areas. The Sixers have often been light on healthy centers, light on rim protection and light on the boards. According to Cleaning the Glass, the team ranks 21st in offensive rebounding percentage and 27th in defensive rebounding percentage this year.
For Nurse, the nature of his job means that he’s supposed to think most about the task of beating the 23-19 Pacers.
“I think, for the most part, I’ve got to micro-focus on what’s there,” he said. “I think it’s a little bit of a puzzle when you know that one big piece of it’s going to be gone. The other pieces have been scattered so much. That’s been difficult enough. But I think there’s always that little part of you that’s always thinking big picture, right? It’s always in the back of your mind a little bit.
“But 90 percent of the time I think, ‘How in the hell are we going to win tomorrow night?’ What are we going to do tomorrow night? Who’s going to be available and how can we play as well as we can play and give ourselves a chance to win?”