Sixers continue to struggle without their stars in 115-107 road loss to Raptors

TORONTO — The 76ers are searching for the perfect combination while Joel Embiid and Paul George remain sidelined.

The jury is still out about after Friday night’s 115-107 loss to the Toronto Raptors at Scotiabank Arena. The Sixers have now opened each of the last three seasons with consecutive losses.

The Sixers lost despite a lineup change that featured Kelly Oubre Jr., Caleb Martin, Andre Drummond, Tyrese Maxey and Kyle Lowry. The moves came after Lowry and Martin had solid performances in reserve roles in Wednesday’s loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. Meanwhile, KJ Martin and Eric Gordon, who started in the season opener, were the second and third men off the bench.

The new lineup’s principal purpose was to shift Maxey off the ball. He finished with 24 points and four assists but continued to struggle from the field, shooting 6 of 23 two days after making 10 of 31 shots against Milwaukee.

Meanwhile, Oubre paced the Sixers with a game-high 28 points and Lowry scored 14 points. Drummond and Martin had 11 points apiece.

But while the Sixers had balanced scoring from its starting lineup, the team struggled defensively for a second consecutive game. The Raptors shot 46.1% from the field as Scottie Barnes had a team-high 27 points and Jakob Poeltl added 19 points and nine rebounds.

The Sixers trailed by as many as as 19 in the fourth quarter. However, Philly went to a full-court press on defense to get back into the game, closing the gap to nine with 3 minutes, 23 seconds remaining. And they pulled within six points at 109-103 with 45.4 seconds left. The Raptors extended that gap at the free-throw line and held on for their first win of the season.

The Sixers expected to extend their series winning streak over the Raptors to eight games even with Embiid and George sidelined. R.J. Barrett (right AC joint sprain), Bruce Brown (right knee arthroscopic surgery), Kelly Olynyk (back sprain), Immanuel Quickly (right pelvic bruise) and Ja’ Kobe Walter (right AC joint sprain) all missed the game.

Of course, the Sixers have their own well-documented injuries. Embiid (left knee injury management) and George (left knee bone bruise) are with the team on their two-game road trip but will remain sidelined for Sunday’s game against the Indiana Pacers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

“We are trying to get them on the court, right?” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said of the thought process behind having the duo travel. “So we have practice tomorrow in Indiana. We had a shootaround today. We are trying to ramp up a little bit. So our team is here, and this is our best chance to do that.”

In addition to shootaround, Embiid and George participated in pregame workouts.

The Sixers have looked shaky without them. That could be a concern as they’re expected to miss several games this season as part of load management.

But Lowry played on the Raptors’ 2019 championship team, which featured a starting lineup that was intact for just 114 minutes in the regular season. Lowry, Danny Green, Pascal Siakam, Kawhi Leonard and Marc Gasol only started together in nine regular-season games.

“It’s day by day,” Lowry said of the Sixers losing the season opener without Embiid and George. “We lost our hopes of going 82-0, but we are OK. We will be fine. That’s part of it. Just stay the course. We’re fine.

“One day, one game. We’re not even four games into the regular season so we’ll just continue to grow.”