PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers are fighting to stay afloat without Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George in the lineup. All three stars are injured, as are several role players, and the rest of the roster has had to pick up a lot of slack.
Nick Nurse said he does take into consideration the toll of the schedule and workloads for the players who have led the injury-riddled Sixers. Ahead of their back-to-back against the Utah Jazz and the Atlanta Hawks, he said he has to make sure he doesn’t overtax his key players.
“I think that we’ve pushed some guys pretty far here in the last two or three weeks,” the 76ers head coach said. “Again, a lot of injuries…I think we do gotta be a little bit more mindful of that and try to survive some minutes and let some of the other guys play as maybe their own second unit and see how they can hang in there.”
76ers trying to keep minutes in check for shorthanded roster
With Jared McCain and Eric Gordon also sidelined for the rest of the season along with Embiid, the 76ers having injuries to George and Maxey puts even more strain on the role players. Nurse pointed to Quentin Grimes, Guerschon Yabusele and Kelly Oubre Jr. — who he said is the de facto first option without the stars — as guys whose minutes need to be monitored.
“Pushing those guys into [the] forties over and over and over is a bit much,” Nurse said of their extended playing time. Oubre has reached 40 minutes in eight games this season while Yabusele and Grimes have both played in the mid-to-high 30s with Philly.
One thing that will help the Sixers is the eventual return of Kyle Lowry, who has dealt with a hip injury that has sidelined him for all but 11 of the team’s 32 games in 2025, including the last 10 games. Nurse said that Lowry is feeling “a lot better” and that he’ll be re-examined after the back-to-back.
With the play-in falling further and further out of the picture, the 76ers are eager to get back to their winning ways. At this point, simply making it through the rest of the season in one piece would be an accomplishment.
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