The Philadelphia 76ers (30-18) played the Brooklyn Nets (20-28) as they embarked further into Joel Embiid-less territory. The Sixers, faced with a ton of injuries, got run into the ground and suffered a blowout loss. The final score: 136-121.

Let’s break down a woeful night for the Sixers.

76ers player notes:

Tyrese Maxey: 23 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, 8-23 FG shooting

Once again facing a defense as the top option, Maxey struggled greatly. The Nets' length and Nic Claxton's presence in the rim made it extremely tough to carve out daylight to shoot. Some of his shots were awkward floaters with his body contorted well away from the hoop. Although he shot pretty well from deep, he could not get anything consistent going in the paint. Try as he did, back-to-back heaters were not in the cards.

Kelly Oubre Jr.: 16 points, 4 rebounds, 0 assists, 3-14 FG shooting

Through sheer willpower, Oubre was one of the few not-totally-tapped sources of offense for the 76ers. He got into the paint a lot and, while was a mess shooting from the field, he drew enough contact to somewhat make up for it. This wasn’t a particularly strong Oubre game. The ball simply found him in positions to create offense more often than anyone else besides Maxey.

Nets player notes:

Ben Simmons: 0 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 0-0 FG shooting

Simmons showed some love to Philly fans ahead of the game and then played a sizable role in a win over his former team, though it wasn’t super pretty. He did a very good job of getting the Nets into fast breaks, though in typical Simmons fashion, he didn’t take a single shot. He got dinged for a bunch of fouls, as well. In the end, he left his former NBA home victoriously.

Mikal Bridges: 23 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 7-16 FG shooting

Bridges gave Maxey lots of trouble as the primary defender and hit a bunch of shots for Brooklyn. His shooting from deep was particularly strong. He and Cam Thomas, who dropped 38 points, led the way for the Nets for most of the game.

Game recap:

1st half

Simmons was healthy for the Nets' first game in Philadelphia this season but so much has happened with the 76ers recently that there was not much juice about it (on top of the fact that his return came last year). As more details spilled about Embiid's meniscus injury, the Sixers have to carry on. Nick Nurse said he's looking for consistency out of his players as they figure out how to operate without Embiid, tapping into the flashes of impact they show here and there.

The Sixers were without Nico Batum and Tobias Harris on top of the continued absences of De'Anthony Melton and Robert Covington, forcing Danuel House Jr. and Marcus Morris Sr. into the starting lineup. House guarded Bridges to start off while the Nets wing started with Maxey as his defensive matchup. Maxey began this game cold, settling for a lot of tough shots and hoping to get fouled. The Nets blitzed him at the top of halfcourt to ensure he didn’t get any easy looks or create others for his teammates.

Cam Thomas started things off for the Nets by making Paul Reed hit the deck and hitting a jumper. It looked more like he tripped him up rather than crossing him over but regardless, it kickstarted a solid start offensively for Brooklyn, who attacked in transition and hunted mismatches, whether it be size mismatches with Maxey or quickness mismatches with Morris.

Simmons was showered with booming boos as he checked into the game. They continued as he fouled Patrick Beverley on his first possession and each time he touched the ball. But the crowd went silent as he assisted his teammates in the fast break, helping Brooklyn go up by double figures. The Sixers guarded Simmons with Bamba, sagging way off of him, so the Nets used that space to run dribble handoffs.

Maxey blew one up for a fast-break score but that was one of the very few things that went the Sixers' way early on. The Nets ran them ragged on defense with Simmons pushing the pace and igniting ball movement. Without Maxey, Philly had nothing to go to besides Oubre drawing fouls on shots at the rim. In just the first quarter, he tied a season-high with eight free-throw attempts and made each one. Although he was 0-5 from the field, his aggression was monumentally important and impactful for such a badly shorthanded Philly squad.

The 76ers were so starved for offense that a possession ended with Reed taking a fallaway one-legged jumper. Predictably, it missed badly. Ricky Council IV played his first non-garbage-time minutes of the season and Philly went to Morris at center. Claxton continued his dominance on the glass by racking up his 13th rebound in the first 17 minutes of game time. The good times for the Sixers kept rolling as Nurse was hit with a technical foul and the Nets' lead entered the 20s.

Oubre and Maxey scored over Simmons with a dunk and reverse layup, respectively, as Philly started showing some life. Maxey swished a triple over Simmons and drew a foul on him, too, as the 76ers' defense improved with numerous deflections. But the deficit only shrunk marginally in the concluding minutes of the half. Maxey threw in a triple through a foul before both squads headed to their locker rooms.

At the break, the Sixers trailed 67-51.

2nd half

The 76ers went back to Oubre to open the half. He drew yet another shooting foul but gave some of it back by getting hit with a tech. Philly didn’t look any more crisp or rejuvenated after the break. They got beat up the court after a make, struggled to contain the Nets' up-tempo offense and failed to make significant adjustments to Maxey getting blitzed.

Since they finally got some shots to fall and rebounded pretty well, the Sixers continued to hang around ever so slightly. The dam started to crack with the Nets' unrelenting fast break until Lonnie Walker IV failed to finish a lob from Royce O'Neale, leading to a Jaden Springer and-one on Simmons. That glimmer of comic relief was all the 76ers had as the third quarter wound down. Thomas obliterated Philly's defense in the quarter, racking up 21 points on 8-13 shooting.

Springer had some nice plays to start the fourth — some good defense on Bridges, a dish to Korkmaz for a short jumper and a confident three-point attempt. But he also flubbed a layup attempt by needlessly attempting a reverse to his right. Nothing really mattered for the game at this point.

Terquavion Smith joined the fun with over nine minutes left and lit it up from downtown. Beverley was tossed from the game a few minutes later for arguing with a ref. Council played some nice defense, forcing an eight-second violation. Then, the best thing about this entire game for the 76ers happened: it ended. Losing in this fashion stinks and the abundance of injuries to multiple starters, not just Embiid, was a massive culprit. But WOOF.

Random tidbits:

  • Nurse didn’t offer anything specific on Embiid but did say that, at the very least, he's in a good headspace.

The 76ers will continue their homestand against the Dallas Mavericks on Monday.