CAMDEN, N.J. — The Philadelphia 76ers continue to deal with an overload of injuries as they try to salvage what’s left of this regular season. Tyrese Maxey and Paul George are banged up and it's looking like the Sixers could be without both of them again.
According to a team official, Maxey did individual workouts as the Sixers practiced on Saturday and is “unlikely” to play on Sunday against the Utah Jazz. George, who did not practice, will miss that game and Monday's road game against the Atlanta Hawks.
Nick Nurse said Maxey's back injury “isn’t too bad” and that it’s not “nearly as serious as it certainly could have been. But they're gonna want to make sure he's moving and landing and jumping and being able to tolerate all that stuff.” Maxey's finger injury on his right hand is still giving him problems, too. Nurse said it's “not getting much better.”
As for George, Nurse thinks the Sixers will have some more information on his groin issue soon. PG, who is also dealing with a finger injury on his left hand, was listed as questionable for Philly's last game but did not play.
76ers continue to face several injuries to key players
Although Joel Embiid's season-ending knee problems are the biggest injury issues facing the 76ers, their constantly changing lineups have made continuity an impossibility this season.
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In 62 games, they’ve had 39 different starting lineups. They have yet to see a five-man lineup play 75 minutes together. Every other team in the NBA has at least one such group and most have multiple five-man groupings that have exceeded 100 minutes.
“I'd certainly, probably, rather be doing something else,” Nurse said about reorganizing lineups and nearly starting from scratch game after game, “but it is what it is right now. I gotta get 'em organized. I think first and foremost, we gotta be ableto execute some things at both ends of the floor, special situations, et cetera. That's where we gotta spend a lot of time right now. It's just what we gotta do.”
“I'm just trying to put 'em in positions where they can get some of that stuff on speed dial so they can concentrate on playing hard and making shots and making plays rather than constantly thinking about, ‘Where am I supposed to be on this particular situation?’ or, ‘What scheme are we in?’ or whatever,” Nurse continued. “We'll just keep going over and over that stuff.”
Andre Drummond did not practice on Saturday due to an illness. Justin Edwards, who did participate in practice, said that his sprained left ankle is “better” and that he's “taking it day byday.”
With Embiid, Jared McCain and Eric Gordon done for the season and Kyle Lowry seemingly not making any progress with his hip injury, it goes without saying that the 76ers have their work cut out for them.