PHILADELPHIA — Third quarters have been bad for the Philadelphia 76ers this season.

Like monstrously bad. Like 2024-25 bad.

That was the blight on Sunday’s 111-108 loss to the Detroit Pistons. And it’s been the blip on a 6-4 start that, given three back-to-backs and still-resolving injuries, has generally been pretty good.

Coach Nick Nurse hasn’t identified a specific throughline in the third-quarter ailments. Sunday’s was a 34-21 deficit that erased a 10-point halftime lead. The 76ers weathered the Pistons’ first wave, Detroit getting within 68-66 before the Sixers ballooned the lead back out to a game-high 13 at 79-66.

But behind Jalen Duren and Cade Cunningham, the Pistons headed to the fourth with an 88-85 lead.

“I think it’s just basketball,” Nurse said. “I think if you’re watching other games, too, you’re watching it go back and forth a little bit. It’s basketball.”

Perhaps, but the basketball from the 76ers in third quarters has been putrid. They are averaging a minus-8.8 point differential in third quarters this year, worst in the NBA.

The ratings, normalized for 100 possessions, tell a frightening story. For the season, the 76ers rank fifth in the NBA in defensive rating (120.1), 22nd in defensive rating (116.1) and 10th in net rating (plus-4.1)

In third quarters? Dead last in offensive rating (92.5). Dead last in defensive rating (128.8). Deader than dead last in net rating (minus-36.3). Their turnover percentage jumps from 15th overall to 27th in the third quarter, an increase of more than four giveaways per 100 possessions.

Sunday, the 76ers rode an average of plus-7 from their reserves to take lead at half. But that got handed back by their starters to open the third quarter. Nurse specifically cited a 12-4 disadvantage in free throws in the third quarter Sunday.

The problem is much vaster, though. Some of it speaks to the still unsettled rotation, Nurse looking for combinations that work regularly. The minutes restriction on Joel Embiid plays a part, the center getting shorter stints in second halves while the team limits him to low-20s minutes.

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Part of the surge from the second unit owed to Jabari Walker. The two-way forward had 12 points and five rebounds in 12 minutes, shooting 5-for-6 from the field with a couple of made 3-pointers.

“Today, my mindset was, if I’m open, then I’m shooting it,” Walker said. “That good energy attracts good results.”

Walker didn’t add onto that in six second-half minutes. His 18 minutes was the third-longest run he’s gotten this season. He had accounted for 24 points in his first 116 minutes as a 76er, going 0-for-7 from 3-point range. The confidence from the coaching staff to keep shooting drove him to keep at it.

“I think he’s a good shooter,” Nurse said. “I think it was just a matter of time. He’s had a bunch of them go in and out. But that was nice to be able to give him an extended stretch.”

Walker is the kind of player at the heart of Nurse’s rotation conundrums, in a good way. A versatile defender and quality rebounder at 6-9, he can play the 3 or the 4. Those needs vary on the basis of Embiid’s availability, and they’ll change even more once Paul George and Dominick Barlow return.

But Walker exemplifies the 76ers’ need to find different ways to win games. Sunday’s shooting success is a step toward that.

“Just to see the reaction from the bench and all the coaches embracing me, continuing to tell me to shoot and things like that,” Walker said, “it was just a moment that’s been waiting to happen.”

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For just the third time in his 913-game NBA career, Andre Drummond made two 3-pointers Sunday night.

He also missed a triple with 2:49 left and the 76ers down by three.

On paper, it was not necessarily the look you want one of his generation’s best rebounders to be taking. Unless you’re Nurse.

“They’re going to pack in there, and every now and then, you’re going to end up with that kick-out as the shot,” Nurse said. “I think if he was 0-for-0 or 0-for-3 at that time, I might have a different feeling. But he already hit a couple. He certainly has made those a little more consistently this year and taken them in a pretty good rhythm, which I think can help us in the long run. So not going to fault him for that.”

Drummond twice hit two 3-pointers in a game: for Cleveland against the Clippers on Feb. 9, 2020, and against Miami on Feb. 24, 2020. Those were the only four triples he made in 33 games as a Cavalier.

Drummond is 4-for-10 on 3-pointers this year and 22-for-150 all-time. He made 11 in eight seasons with Detroit — that’s total, not average — and is up to seven as a 76er.

“Those are shots that I’ve been taking for years in my career,” he said. “So the fact that Nick has given me the green light to shoot them, it gives anybody confidence when your coach believes in you to make those shots. And I made two big ones earlier in the game. To have my team have faith in me to make a third down the stretch of the game, it speaks volumes.

“I wish I would have made it. I think it would have really changed the game if I made it.”

Drummond was excellent Sunday, with 17 points and 13 rebounds in 35 minutes. He helped the 76ers go plus-7 in the rebounding battle against one of the league’s better rebounding teams, fronted by former Roman Catholic player Duren’s 21 points and 16 boards.

Drummond said he found out he’d be starting for the first time this season during pre-game layup lines. Adem Bona had started three times in Embiid’s absence.

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Jared McCain’s return from last year’s meniscus tear and this fall’s thumb ligament tear took another step with his first home game since December.

McCain checked in for the first time in the second quarter. He got a warm ovation from the crowd that matched the second-year guard’s anticipation of the chance to play at home again.

“When I came in, I could feel the love immediately,” he said. “It’s amazing to play here at home. I was just blessed to be in the game, whenever that was.”

McCain played nine minutes without scoring. He went 0-for-3 from the field with an assist and a steal. He’s 0-for-7 without a point in 24 minutes since his return.

“I think just giving myself grace, giving myself compassion with it, knowing that’s going to come,” McCain said. “It’s definitely tough, though it’s really frustrating when you feel you can prepare as much as possible, but it’s just not clicking as much as you want it to. But I give myself a lot of grace.”