With Embiid and George still out, Nurse says he’s focused on ‘job at hand’ originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
CAMDEN, NJ — Neither does Joel Embiid (management of left knee injuries) nor Paul George (left knee bone bruise) will participate in the Sixers’ second home game of the season.
A team official said both stars will miss the Sixers’ Wednesday night game against the Pistons at Wells Fargo Center. They participated in portions of the team’s Tuesday practice and will be reevaluated later in the week, according to the official. Next on the calendar for the Sixers is Saturday’s meeting with the Grizzlies.
Sixers head coach Nick Nurse declined to provide further details.
Asked if Embiid and George did any 5-on-5 scrimmage, Nurse said, “You guys got the update. They’ve been in parts of practice. Let’s go.”
He later brushed off a question about Embiid’s individualized plan, saying, “I’m not going to answer. They gave you the updates on that, right? They gave you the updates on Joel.”
Nurse wanted to speak to a general question about cooperation with the Sixers’ medical and training staffs regarding Embiid and George.
“Listen, it’s not that hard to be on the same page,” he said. “We want these guys to play, and we want them to be healthy and we want them to play great. And we want them to play great all season, right? Then my main focus is that I’ve got to do the job I’ve got to do I’ve got to try to get this team to play as well as possible tomorrow night.
“And that takes a lot of my focus. I’ll definitely be working and doing things as we go, but I’m just trying to focus on my current job.”
So, on Nurse and the 1-2 Sixers go without two All-Stars. After an overtime win over the Pacers and an off-day Monday, the Sixers ran through an extended practice.
“Just trying to establish and maintain an identity and a toughness of who we want to be — who we are, how we want to play — that ultimately came out there three games,” Nurse said. “Just stay on that path.”
With Embiid still out, the Sixers will once again start Andre Drummond, who averaged 10.0 points and 13.0 rebounds.
Drummond’s 5.3 offensive rebounds per game to lead the NBA.
“He was really good the other night,” Nurse said. “How many rebounds did he have the other night? Seventeen. And two thefts. They are huge, aren’t they? I think he’s also starting to figure out some other things — where he can position himself on both sides. … I thought he looked a lot more comfortable.
“On the screen-and-rolls, when they were double-teamed, he gets it and shoots it, moves it. Every reading he did was comfortable and good. … He does a lot of really good things for us. And it’s good to see too, because it’s kind of hard to judge anything after the second game. So it was good to see a lot of guys playing a lot better – more like we used to.”
The Sixers will look to improve to .500 on Wednesday against an 0-4 Pistons team that includes former Sixers Tobias Harris and Paul Reed.
Nurse coached Harris for the final season of his five-year stint in Philadelphia. He was open about that experience.
“Well, obviously a rocky year last year,” said Nurse. “Rocky tenure, to be honest. But training against him, going into it, we always had to game plan for him and he always did a lot of different things. He did the same for us last year. The weight of whatever was going on with his contract and his play, and whether it matched up… all that kind of stuff was not very fun to be a part of.
“A really good guy who was a great professional and really tried, worked really hard and produced a lot. I like him a lot. I like him as a person, I like him as a player.”
