1 week Ago By Matthew Degeorge
PHILADELPHIA — Game 81 of the Philadelphia 76ers season featured exactly three players who were wearing the team’s jersey in Game 1. Of the 13 players who took part in that 124-109 loss to Milwaukee an eon ago on Oct. 23, a surprisingly low three are no longer with the organization.
That group didn’t include Joel Embiid or Paul George, both absent more or less start-to-finish. Injuries have befallen the bulk of that group, the 76ers’ win total of 24 (and counting?) barely surpassing the nightly injury report multitude. As the 76ers hit the final two games of the season this weekend, hosting the Hawks Friday and Chicago on Sunday, there’s nothing left to play for save for padding the stats on a disastrous all-around season.
The 76ers came into Friday night’s game with all of eight available players. Nick Nurse was forced to draw up his NBA record-extending 54th different starting lineup. Only Adem Bona, Ricky Council and Jeff Dowtin had been in Philadelphia way back in October.
Marcus Bagley was in the G League, Lonnie Walker was in Lithuania and the other illustrious members of the roster were with other NBA organizations. The season will end with Ricky Council as the team’s leader in games played, Friday his 72nd. Guerschon Yabusele is second at 70.
The most starts belong to Kelly Oubre Jr. at 57. Embiid played 19 games this season, George 41, Maxey 52.
The season will conclude with Adem Bona starting nearly as many games as Kyle Lowry, with Quentin Grimes playing nearly as many minutes as Caleb Martin. In among that wreckage, there’s precious little meaning for Nurse to pull on a nightly basis in these final two installments. The short list, among the survivors to year’s end: n Since early March, Bona has averaged 13.
2 points and 8.5 rebounds in his last 13 games since early March, the second-round pick looking like a viable reserve center. n Grimes has averaged 224 points per game and shot 47 percent from the field in his 27 games as a 76er, scoring at such a clip that it has behooved the 76ers’ draft stock to throttle him back.
(His 44 points to beat Golden State on March 1 may prove one of the more damaging wins of the season.) n Walker, after a slow start upon his arrival back stateside and a concussion, has shown glimmers of being a veteran who can help the 76ers off the bench next year with a real NBA roster around him. He has averaged 17 points in his last seven games.
“I think the 3-point shooting is pretty legitimate,” Nurse said. “I like the choices. I like the percentage.
I like the ability to not have to be wide open. He can make them contested, and he can create his own a little bit, too. .
.. He’s been solid, and we’ve been giving him some defensive assignments, and he’s done solid on those as well.
” • • • Embiid had successful arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on Wednesday in New York, the club announced on Friday. He will be re-evaluated in approximately six weeks. The knee is the same one on which Embiid underwent a meniscus repair in February 2024.
He was limited to 19 games this season. “It went well,” Nurse said. “I think they’re very happy with what transpired.
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