Sixers heading into week of unknowns
PHILADELPHIA – After a wild twoday stretch that culminated with the 76ers having only seven players available for Saturday afternoon’s 115-103 loss to the Nuggets at Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia’s players and coaches don’t know what’s going to happen next.
How many players will be available for Monday night’s road game against the Hawks in Atlanta?
Will All-Stars Joel Embiid (back stiffness) and Ben Simmons (left knee swelling) be back Monday and again Tuesday versus the Heat, for one of the games apiece or none?
While Seth Curry will remain out all week after testing positive for COVID-19 in Brooklyn on Thursday, could one or more of the players missing Saturday’s game due to the NBA’s health-and-safety protocols – starter Tobias Harris and reserves Shake Milton, Matisse Thybulle and Vincent Poirier – be cleared to return Monday, Tuesday or Thursday, when the 76ers host the Heat again? Players tend to miss seven days after being exposed.
Could backup power forward Mike Scott, in uniform versus Denver to give the Sixers the minimum eight dressed players required, be called upon for minutes Monday and/or Tuesday? Scott had missed the four games before Saturday due to a left knee bruise.
The list of questions with to-be-determined answers goes on for the Sixers, who had off Sunday.
“I think a week like we’re going to have, we just got to be prepared for anything – whether we have some players come back or we have to play seven again,” said rookie guard Isaiah Joe after starting and playing 45 minutes Saturday. “We’re definitely prepared for whatever we have in front of us.”
Rivers experienced days like Saturday when he coached the Celtics, particularly in the 2006-07 season in which Boston finished 24-58 and had plenty of players unavailable late in that season.
“I’ve actually had this a couple times in Boston where we were makeshifting every night with different lineups down to nine (guys),” Rivers said.
While it was impressive to see guard Tyrese Maxey score 39 Saturday to register the most points by a Sixers rookie since Hall of Famer Allen Iverson had 40 on April 14, 1997, getting at least a few players back would be a big boost because it’d give Rivers more viable options after he had to rely on four first-year players against the Nuggets, three of whom (Maxey, Joe and Dakota Mathias) logged 40-plus minutes.
That’s not going to produce many wins in this league, especially when the Sixers’ top five scorers producing an average of 88.1 points per game are sidelined.
Asked what he’s trying to accomplish with five of the team’s 17 players in the health-and-safety protocol, Rivers replied, “Development, No. 1. Health is No. 2 because COVID created this but the concern is injuries because guys are playing so many minutes because we don’t have enough guys. … We’ve got to be very careful how we navigate over the next week.”
Only three of the 10 in Rivers’ regular rotation played Saturday. Danny Green was the only usual starter, with normal reserves Maxey and Dwight Howard pressed into starting roles. Getting a guy like Joe, a second-round selection, some meaningful minutes shows the player he can contribute at this level and could bolster his confidence.
But Joe’s probably not going to be a determining factor in the Sixers’ quest to make a deep postseason run during the 2020-21 season. Players like Curry, Harris, Danny Green, Milton and, most of all, Embiid and Simmons, will do that.
And Maxey.
“(Scoring) 39’s great,” Maxey said. “It was cool, but I’m really looking forward to getting a win in Atlanta.”
What is unclear is who else will be on the court to help the Sixers try to reach Maxey’s goal.