PHILADELPHIA — The injury bug has mercilessly infected the Philadelphia 76ers over the last few weeks. Joel Embiid's meniscus injury was just the latest in a load of health issues the Sixers are dealing with now and have just got done dealing with. Even some guys like Tobias Harris, who was active in their most recent game, are dealing with something that's holding them back.
Embiid remains out while Nico Batum, De'Anthony Melton and Robert Covington missed their fourth, 12th and 17th consecutive games respectively. Harris missed three of the six games coming into the 76ers' loss to the Dallas Mavericks due to an illness. The sickness may be gone but its effects continued to linger.
“Still recovering and just getting myself back to 100 percent,” Harris said after the game. “Looked at it like, you know, I could go out there and contribute in some way, shape or effort, so I'm gonna go play.”
The illness Harris contracted kept him sidelined at the start of a road trip. He said it was “terrible” dealing with it throughout all the traveling and didn’t feel like himself in the finale of the trip, a win over the Utah Jazz. “Today I felt a little bit better,” he said after the loss to Dallas, “and that felt a whole lot better than the past days.”
Harris did fine in an otherwise rough loss to Dallas, recording 17 points on 8-11 shooting, six rebounds and six assists. But it was clear that he gutted out his performance. Had Philly not been down so many players, he could have felt better about taking a rest day against a middle-of-the-pack Mavs team. With no such luck, he suited up and played in a game that the Sixers let go in the second half.
“He told me he was about 80 percent tonight,” admitted head coach Nick Nurse, “and I said, ‘That's pretty good. We'll take it.’ But we did have to, considering where some of the guys are, take him in and out quite a bit But I thought he did a good job. He did what he could do tonight and [we] appreciate that.”
Paul Reed was feeling under the weather in the 76ers' previous game, limiting his minutes to 15, and Nurse said that that was the case in the loss to the Mavericks. The wave of injuries is leaving Philly devoid of depth. Tyrese Maxey had to fight through a recent ankle sprain to play in Utah. He ended up going off for a career-best 51 points. But on nights when Philly doesn’t get superhuman efforts from its All-Star guard, victories are very unlikely to follow.
“First and foremost, you just gotta get healthy. You gotta get guys healthy,” Maxey said. “We got some guys that's fighting through some things as well. Kudos to them because they're still coming out here every single night and fighting through it and going out there and still trying to help us win games.”
Winning games is not something the 76ers have been able to do frequently without Embiid this season. They are 4-11 in such games. Even though that record is worsened by games where the team is also down key rotation players like Melton and Batum, their record in games where Embiid is the lone or just one of a few guys out is not great, either.
The 76ers being worse without Embiid and numerous other starters is no surprise. But whether or not their fortune in health turns, they will have to figure out ways to win in order to prevent their season from sinking.
Follow Us
Subscribe