PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers lived a lot of basketball over an eight-day, Sunday-to-Sunday stretch.
A little less Jalen Johnson here, a little more mortality from LeBron James there and the 76ers could’ve ended up 5-0 in that run.
As it was, five games in eight days yielded three wins, a double-OT loss to the Hawks and a four-point loss to the Lakers thanks to 12 fourth-quarter points from LeBron.
What was most evident to coach Nick Nurse is what still needs to be added, in a positive way that speaks to the strength of the foundation his team has laid in the season’s first two months.
“The biggest thing is, I think our competitiveness is there,” Nurse said after the 112-108 setback to the Lakers on Sunday. “I think that is the big thing. I think when we get all these guys out there, we look like, size-wise, an NBA team, so we can match up. I think our competitiveness has been great. I think there’s tons of work to do, probably more on the offensive end.”
Time is finally on the 76ers’ side. As in time on the sideline that is dwindling, and in time on the practice court that may finally increase. After five games in eight days, the 76ers play two in 11, with a winnable visit from Indiana Friday and Sunday’s trip to Atlanta, then a break until the Dec. 19 game against the Knicks.
More important is the chance to rest, reset and get some practice time this week.
The Lakers’ loss was the ninth game of the season for Joel Embiid. It was the second time he and Paul George had played together. It’s all still a work in progress. This week and next, a respite in the game schedule around the NBA Cup finals, provides a rare runway for that work.
Limits on game time are easing for George, who played 32:09 Sunday in his eighth game of the season, as well as guards Jared McCain and VJ Edgecombe. Embiid has the framework of an injury management plan that aims to get him two days off to recover from a game. He played 30:16 against the Lakers, his second game of 30 or more minutes.
All should be able to practice together this week, with an intensity Nurse can’t always achieve in a condensed schedule.
“I think this little break is going to be good for us, honestly, and then we’ll figure some stuff out,” Tyrese Maxey said. “We had basically zero practice time with Jo and P, especially on the court. So I think it’ll be really good.”
“I think it’s all about all of us continuing to play together and finding that rhythm,” Embiid said after a 4-for-21 shooting performance against the Lakers. “I thought tonight, it would be a different game if I make a couple of shots, we make a couple more shots as a team. I thought defensively, we were fine for the most part, couple of mistakes here and there.”
Maxey’s emphasis in this stretch is, as he deadpanned, “just rest.” He’s third in the NBA in scoring at 31.5 points per game and leads the way at 39.9 minutes. Help is on the way, and he’ll be central to figuring out how to best integrate it.
That’ll come mainly on the offensive end. The 76ers rank 17th in the NBA in offensive rating and 15th in defensive rating. Nurse sees the offensive side of the ball as more ripe for improvement, with defensive principles fairly well installed but in need of nightly execution.
“We’ve got to get a little bit more time together to get used to some of the defensive schemes and changes and rotations and stuff,” he said. “But in general, you can’t argue. We’re rebounding where we’re fighting, I think we’re guarding a little bit better, and we’re still trying to figure out, you know, where to go with the ball on offense.”
Part of this reset is a lack of concern in the friction between pieces on a team that sits sixth in the Eastern Conference standings.
Only Maxey has played in each of the 76ers’ 23 games. Embiid has played nine times, George eight. Trendon Watford has played 14 games and remains out with an adductor strain after a preseason hamstring issue limited him to virtually no practice time. Kelly Oubre Jr. (knee) is out with a knee strain.
If it looks at times like they haven’t practiced together, it’s because they haven’t. Yet they look like a playoff team even with those limitations.
There are a lot of moving pieces. But Nurse has crafted nine-man rotations from a group of 11 or so trusted guys. With George and Embiid unlikely to shoulder back-to-backs anytime soon, that depth will still need to be cultivated.
But refining that rotation night-to-night contains immense potential. With what Maxey can do, with Quentin Grimes’ flashes of explosiveness, with the spark provided by Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker at the four-spot, the 76ers have a lot of pieces.
They now have time to coalesce them into a more coherent — and, though this is out of their control, healthier — whole.
“We’re kind of trying to figure it out,” Maxey said. “We’ve played some games with Jo, so we kind of know what we want to do there. We’ve played some games with Paul without Jo, kind of know what we’re going to do there. I think it is our second game with Jo and Paul, so it’s a little difficult. And you have the Qs and the J-Mac and Trendon, I don’t think he’s been able to practice once or go live once in practice this year. So we do have a lot of things that we can work on during this break, which is going to be really good for us.”