CAMDEN, N.J. — As the Philadelphia 76ers prepare to resume their season on Thursday against the New York Knicks, they continue to integrate their new pieces.
The Sixers got back to work on Wednesday as they look ahead to the final 28 games of the season. While waiting for the return of Joel Embiid (meniscus injury), Philadelphia is integrating Buddy Hield, Cam Payne and Kyle Lowry into the fold.
It will be a new challenge for coach Nick Nurse, but due to his experiences in the G League and the British Basketball League, he understands how to work with new pieces day in and day out.
“I think it certainly limits it for the time being,” Nurse said. “You’ve got to keep a pretty small package in. You can’t overload them with trying to learn stuff or they’ll just be bogged down by that, but in general, I think we’ve improved our shooting and we’ve improved our ball handling, which I thought were certainly concerns.”
The Sixers saw what Hield brought to the table in the four games he played before the All-Star break. He shot 45% from deep in those games and will be looking to help the Sixers get the job done. As will Lowry, who shot 38.5% from deep in 37 games with the Miami Heat and Payne.
“There’s some lineups that look really good shooting-wise when you put them all out there together,” Nurse added. “We just have to see. I think there’s so many new guys, we have to see how it plays out a little bit, but I think the basis of how we’ll play will show itself here over the next two, three weeks.”
The Sixers will look to get things moving in the right direction when they begin post-All-Star break play on Thursday.
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