CAMDEN, NJ — Following a Tuesday afternoon practice session, the Philadelphia 76ers provided an update on the team’s health. Unfortunately for Sixers fans, the short-term prognosis was not encouraging. However, an update from Paul George himself should breed some relief.
Ahead of Nick Nurse’s media availability, the team announced that Joel Embiid, Paul George, and Kyle Lowry would all miss Wednesday’s game against the Houston Rockets and that Caleb Martin would be listed as QUESTIONABLE.
According to the Sixers, Joel Embiid (left knee injury management), Caleb Martin (low back soreness), and Kyle Lowry (right hip strain) did not participate in practice, and Paul George (bone bruise) was a limited participant.
Nick Nurse would later discuss how to instill and maintain a fighting spirit in the team in the midst of this loss:
“I’m not backing off that. You got to go out and fight like what came into practice today. It was edgy, it was physical, it was competitive. It’s kind of how we’re going to be, right? I think, I think you got to set that tone, kind of maintain that tone when we when we’re here to work, we’re here to work. That usually translates to the games at night.”
That message is consistent with the way his players have spoken.
Following the team’s loss to the Los Angeles Clippers Sunday night, Maxey discussed fighting through adversity.
“[You] can’t cheat it. You got to play every single night. You got to go out there and compete every single night. Any team could beat you; we know that. When you’re down like this, and you’re in a funk, teams come in with confidence. They come in with confidence. So you have to beat them. Even if you get up 10, you get up eight; you have to beat them. You have to keep going. You have to play the entire 48 minutes of it.”
During his availability after practice on Tuesday, Paul George doubled down on the key being the team maximizing their effort and energy.
“One thing that we can control, obviously, with big, fell out myself, Tyrese, just joining back, getting his rhythm… we’re a little limited, but I think what we can control is just our effort, our energy, and just doing things a little harder, but we’ll change this around. I’m 100% betting down on that we’ll change this [around].”
George may not be back on the court yet for the Sixers, but according to himself, he’s not far away from a return.
“Hopefully, within the next week. That’s kind of been the mindset that I’ve had. Obviously, we haven’t quite cleared it, but that’s the mindset that I’m targeting the way the needs been filling and the workouts been going. Hopefully, within a week, I’ll be ready to go.”
After their matchup against Houston on Wednesday, the Sixers will go on a two-game road trip to Detroit and then head over to Charlotte for their final game of the NBA Cup’s group stage.
There’s no word yet on the official availability of Embiid, PG, or Lowry this weekend, but it seems far from certain that they will make the trip.
