76ers stars Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey were officially made active less than a half hour before Game 2 against the Knicks tipped off at Madison Square Garden, ending the intense suspense swirling around the 76ers’ ailing two best players.
But the health of Embiid (knee) and, suddenly, Maxey (illness), continues to hang over the first-round playoff series between the second-seeded Knicks and seventh-seeded Sixers.
Embiid, the do-it-all reigning NBA MVP who averaged a career-high 34.7 points per game this season, came up hobbled toward the end of Game 1’s second quarter, only to return to start the third quarter and finish out the loss.
Sixers coach Nick Nurse said Embiid reported feeling “pretty good” on Sunday, when he was listed as questionable. The coach shared a similar sentiment less than two hours before Monday’s game.
“I would say the same,” Nurse said.
On Monday morning, Maxey — who led the Sixers with 33 points in the Game 1 loss — informed the team he wasn’t feeling well, prompting him to be listed as questionable as well.
Both Embiid and Maxey were considered game-time decisions, Nurse said, before they went through pregame warmups.
Nurse is no doctor, but as he navigates the issues afflicting his two best players, he has experience to lean on. His stops before the NBA included coaching in the British Basketball League and in the NBA’s D-League.
“I’m fortunate enough that [in] my training as a younger coach, I was in a lot of minor leagues and lower leagues and backwater leagues if you want to call them that,” Nurse said Monday, explaining how he prepared with Embiid and Maxey questionable.
“Literally three guys would be called up an hour before a game. Two guys would get sent down the day before a game. There’s a lot of that, where you’ve done it a lot. It’s a little different but not that much different than somebody getting injured during a game. You put the replacement in there and start making your adjustments and figure out how you’re going to play.”
There’s no replacing Embiid — who went for 29 points, eight rebounds and six assists in Game 1 — or the speedy point guard Maxey, but even with them in the lineup, Nurse stressed the need for Philly’s role players to step up.
Tobias Harris had seven points in Game 1, while Kelly Oubre added 10. Nicolas Batum had three points, and Buddy Hield was held scoreless.
“We need production from Buddy,” Nurse said Monday. “We need production from [Batum]. We need some more production from Kelly. Not a ton, but we need those guys to chip in. They had a whole bunch of guys chip in. We need our guys to chip in.”
