PHILADELPHIA — The 76ers’ blowout loss to the San Antonio Spurs went from bad to worse in the second quarter Tuesday night when VJ Edgecombe hit the deck hard.

Edgecombe suffered a lumbar contusion, the team said Wednesday, ruling him out for a visit from the Utah Jazz.

Coach Nick Nurse is optimistic it will be a short-term absence.

“All the imaging came back good, clean,” Nurse said. “I did talk to him, he said he was fine. But he’ll get reevaluated here in the next couple of days and see where he’s at.”

Edgecombe got fouled from behind by Carter Bryant on a 3-point attempt with two-tenths of a second left in the first half of a 131-91 beatdown by the Spurs. The rookie guard landed hard on his back. He stayed in to make two of three free throws but was ruled out for the game at halftime, a wise decision given the 25-point deficit.

His absence Wednesday leaves the 76ers down essentially four starters. Joel Embid is out for a third straight game with a right oblique strain. Kelly Oubre is out for the second straight night due to illness. Paul George remains suspended.

The Jazz enter on a six-game losing streak and are 14th in the Western Conference. But it will still be a challenge given the 76ers’ staffing issues.

“We’ve obviously got to shuffle the lineup quite a bit,” Nurse said. “There’s some guys that we like coming off the bench, but missing the number of starters we are, we’re going to have to push those guys up and then kind of push the next-line guys up, play some guys that we’re still trying to get to know a little bit.”

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The positives from Tuesday’s night’s bludgeoning can be counted on one hand.

Jabari Walker scored 20 points on 7-for-10 shooting, his highest offensive output in a 76ers jersey. He logged 19 minutes, his most in more than a month, since before the trade-deadline mismanagement by ownership in which he had to be inactive for a week to save money while they waited to convert this two-way contract to a standard deal.

Walker, while undersized at 6-7, is good defensively and on the boards. The 76ers have had their heads stuffed in the metaphorical toilet on rebounding margin the last two games: 59-37 by the Celtics, 56-40 by the Spurs.

Walker offered a reminder to a coaching staff that has apparently forgotten that he might be useful in stopping that.

“I think what’s first is just showing the coach that you’re playing for and showing a team that you could have impacted tonight,” Walker said. “Just put the pressure on them and make them rethink things and think, OK, maybe you could have impacted in some ways.”

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The second quarter was an abject defensive failure, the Spurs shooting 17-for-23 (73.9 percent) from the field and 8-for-12 from 3-point range.

But … Cam Payne hit a pair of 3-pointers and had 10 points in 9:22 of the first half, an encouraging stint from the second-unit guard. It’s just the second time he’s hit multiple 3-pointers in his seven games with the 76ers. He’s shooting 6-for-28 from 3-point range this season.

Justin Edwards, who hadn’t played since Feb. 24 and hadn’t logged more than 10 minutes in a game since Feb. 11, hit both of his first-half 3-pointers.

The 76ers have a cavalcade of problems at the moment, among them injuries, defense and rebounding. But in the absence of Embiid and the continued perimeter deficit from George’s suspension, offensive production from Payne and Edwards will be vital.