BOSTON — The Philadelphia 76ers suffered a tough, 125-119, loss to the Boston Celtics on the road on Friday, but there was a lot to like about the performance.
The Celtics are the No. 1 team in the league, and the Sixers didn’t have Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Nic Batum, Kelly Oubre Jr. or Danuel House Jr. Many expected the Sixers would get blown out. Instead, they put themselves in a terrific position to win. While there aren’t any moral victories in the NBA, coach Nick Nurse saw some positives.
“You gotta go play the game, and you want to try to play it the right way,” Nurse said after the win. “You want to play it hard and you want to execute and you want to just give everything you got, right? And that’s what our guys did and hopefully, it’ll give some of these guys some confidence.”
The guys Nurse is referring to are Mo Bamba and KJ Martin, who have been given opportunities to play with the Sixers so short-handed. Bamba had 11 points and six rebounds off the bench while Martin gave Philadelphia some good minutes.
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“Again, a lot of them we haven’t seen a ton of,” Nurse explained. “So it’s nice to get them 30 minutes or 25 minutes or whatever it is and knowing that ‘OK, this is what we can do with them. This is what they’re capable of doing, etc.’ so glad we got a little break here.”
Philadelphia does not play again until Wednesday when it visits the Washington Wizards. The days off will give the Sixers time for Embiid, Maxey and others to recover from their illnesses and injuries.
“We’re gonna need a couple of days to get everybody healthy,” Nurse finished. “We’re gonna need a couple of days of practice and then we have a big month of December coming at us.”
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