Sixers defense falters in fourth quarter as they fall to Pelicans, 123-115

Keith Pompey, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Jan 10, 2025

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PHILADELPHIA — Think back to the 76ers’ contest against the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night.

The product inside the Wells Fargo Center was below the NBA standard as several key players were sidelined with injuries on both squads.

Well, things weren’t much different for the Sixers in their 123-115 loss to the lowly New Orleans Pelicans Friday night.

The loss dropped them to 15-21 on the season, while the Pelicans, the Western Conference’s last-place team, improved to 8-31.

The Sixers had only nine standard-contract players available, while the Pelicans were without standouts Brandon Ingram, Herb Jones and Trey Murphy III because of injuries. New Orleans was also without star forward Zion Williamson, who was serving a one-day suspension after being late for the team flight.

Each team was counting on its major offseason acquisition to make up the difference. Point guard Dejounte Murray was cleared to play after being listed as questionable with right elbow tendonitis and a right shin contusion. The Sixers expected to get a lift from Paul George’s return after he missed Wednesday’s game with left groin tightness.

Both players overcame shooting shooting slumps and foul trouble in the first half. George was limited to 12 minutes, 49 seconds in the first half after picking up three fouls. In that span, he had two points on 1-for-6 shooting to go with seven rebounds and one assist.

George recovered to finish with 25 points on 10-for-22 shooting — including 5 of 12 3-pointers — along with a season-high 12 rebounds, five assists and two steals. Thirteen of George’s points came in the fourth quarter, when the Sixers showed a bit of life thanks to his all-round play, cutting a 16-point lead to seven with 3:52 remaining.

That moment slowed when Jordan Hawkins made a foul shot to push the Pelicans' lead up to eight after Sixers coach Nick Nurse was called for a technical foul. Then C.J. McCollum drained a 3-pointer to push New Orleans’ lead up to 11 with 3:23 left.

The closest the Sixers got the rest of the way was seven points, and the Pelicans did whatever they wanted to Philly’s defense. They made 59.1% of their shots — including 6 of 9 3-pointers — in the fourth quarter. McCollum finished with a game-high 38 points while making six 3-pointers.

Tyrese Maxey paced the Sixers with 30 points and 12 assists, but his effort couldn’t make up for the absences of Joel Embiid (sprained left foot), Kyle Lowry (right hip soreness) and Andre Drummond (left toe sprain), who all missed their third consecutive game. This was the ninth game that KJ Martin (left foot stress reaction) was sidelined. And Jared McCain (left knee meniscus surgery) is out for the remainder of the season.

Embiid sprained his left foot during pregame warmups before finishing with 27 points and nine rebounds against the Boston Celtics on Christmas Day. The seven-time All-Star then averaged 31.3 points, 10.0 rebounds and 1.3 blocks while playing four of the next five games. The one game he missed during the stretch was on the first night of a back-to-back.

But despite looking fine during that stretch, Embiid hasn’t played since finishing with 28 points and 12 rebounds in just three quarters of action against the Brooklyn Nets on Jan. 4.

“It’s been aggravated for sure,” Nurse said. “That’s why he’s not playing. Again, he’s day to day. Like I said, he practiced yesterday. I think it’s, again, like, hoping that maybe he’d be able to go today, but not just quite ready. I hope he’d be ready to go for the next one.”

But what about his left knee?

Embiid missed several games this season with left knee management and swelling. Is knee management also to blame for his recent absence?

“Listen, the knee is pretty good, I think,” Nurse said. “So the foot’s what’s bothering him now. I think the knee is pretty good.”

Up next

The Sixers play the Orlando Magic on Sunday at the Kia Center. This will be the fourth and final meeting of the season for these teams. Orlando holds a 2-1 advantage. The Eastern Conference’s fourth-place Magic took a 22-17 record into Friday night’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks.