To say the Philadelphia 76ers' NBC “Throwback Night” showdown against the San Antonio Spurs didn't go as planned would be an understatement.

Taking the court down Joel Embiid, Paul George, and eventually VJ Edgecombe, who was ruled out during halftime after taking a hard fall from fellow rookie Carter Bryant, the 76ers trailed the Spurs from 38 seconds into the game and never recovered, going down 78-53 at the half and finishing out the certified blowout 131-91.

What happened? How did the 76ers, even undermanned, allow the game to get that far away from them against a potential NBA Finals opponent? Well, Nick Nurse attempted to break it down, even if he didn't seem to know.

“I thought we were doing a decent job of finding shots. I think it was taking a while, and I kept saying that in the timeouts. The open shots aren't coming as fast as they did the other night, but they're still, you just gotta be a little bit more patient and continue to kick out,” Nurse explained.

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“And I thought, for the most part, I mean, obviously, he blocked a couple of the inside ones from our bigs. But I thought, other than that, we were doing a decent job there for a while. And then we just didn't make; they scored lots of transition. Just really, the second quarter defensively was really bad. Obviously, they were really rolling, hitting tons of threes, getting to the rim. There just was no resistance defensively.”

On offense, the 76ers were borderline disaster, with Tyrese Maxey outscoring the rest of Philadelphia's starters 21-10, while only two other players, Jabari Walker and Cam Payne, managed to get into double digits. Sure, Embiid, PG13, and, for half of the game, Edgecombe, weren't available, but when rotation players like Quentin Grimes, Dominick Barlow, Trendon Watford, Adem Bona, and Justin Edwards combined for just 26 points, the 76ers aren't going to win many, if any, games even if they lock in and play elite defense.