ORLANDO, Fla. — The Philadelphia 76ers are in a tough spot as they continue their four-game road trip. They are looking to bounce back from a Christmas Day loss to the Miami Heat without the services of reigning league MVP Joel Embiid.
Embiid suffered an ankle sprain in Philadelphia’s Dec. 22 win against the Toronto Raptors. The Sixers had a tough time without him in the loss to the Heat. They face the Orlando Magic, the Houston Rockets and the Chicago Bulls to finish the trip.
With Embiid out for at least the Magic game, the Sixers want to show they can win without the reigning league MVP. Philadelphia is 0-4 when he doesn’t play this season.
“We have a very deep roster of people that can play at a high level so for me, it’s about consistency,” Kelly Oubre Jr. said. “I feel good (Tuesday), got better, and (Wednesday’s) a new challenge for us to go out there and show that we can win without Jo and we’ll see what happens.”
While the big fella has been ruled out against the Magic, his status for the matchups in Houston and Chicago is not certain. This creates an opportunity for coach Nick Nurse and the Sixers to see what they have with the rest of the roster.
“It’s gonna be a super valuable learning week for us,” Nurse said. “We’re there with that. We learned a lot (Christmas Day). We need to evaluate where some of these guys are sometimes they don’t get as many chances and things like that, rightful so when Joel’s out there. So this is a chance for guys to grow and learn and us as coaches to evaluate, fix some things, do some other things.”
With Embiid not on the floor, opportunities open for other players to get more shots. That gives Nurse time to evaluate where the Sixers are as they move forward.
“I’m mostly talking about individually, right?” Nurse finished. “See where guys are individually. I think it’s an excellent time of year for us to go through this tough week, but we need some growth out of it at the end of it. You know what I mean?”
[lawrence-related id=88186,88200,88197]