INGLEWOOD, Calif. — And the hits keep coming for the 1-6 Philadelphia 76ers.
Tyrese Maxey strained his right hamstring against the Clippers on Wednesday night and will be out a couple of weeks, a story broken by Shams Charania of ESPN.
Maxey was scoreless on 0-of-3 shooting in the third quarter and did not set foot on the court in the fourth, with the 76ers saying he has “right hamstring soreness.” Postgame, coach Nick Nurse continued the trend of cloudy messaging on injuries with this team.
“I don’t have any idea at this point, but I generally just precautionary…” Nurse said after his team lost 110-98. “He was feeling it a little bit and it was, again, the type of game, there was not that much of a reason to try to push it through tonight.”
Maxey had looked like his lightning-quick in the first half, scoring a dozen points on 5-of-10 shooting.
The injury came later, and in the third quarter, Maxey faded while the Clippers’ depth stepped up, which led to the loss.
Philadelphia just got Paul George back two games ago from injury, Joel Embiid will return next week, but now Maxey is out for a couple of weeks — the Philly’s big three have yet to play a minute together (even in the preseason).
The temptation is to say that at 1-6, Philadelphia is digging itself a hole it may not be able to climb out of. However, the reality is that the No. 3 seed in the East right now is Indiana at 4-4, and the 76ers are just 2.5 games behind them (outside of Boston and Cleveland, nobody is standing out in the East early on). However, getting back into that top group will mean getting the 76ers three stars on the court together for some extended stretches of the season — this team is not that good when they are not all on the court, as evidenced by the team’s start — and the goals of getting back in the top four mix and keeping Embiid (and George) rested and ready for the playoffs may clash at some point.
For now, just add Maxey to the injury list.
