No Embiid, No Excuses: 76ers’ Coach Pinpoints Struggles vs. Pelicans

The Philadelphia 76ers knew they would enter Wednesday night’s matchup against the New Orleans Pelicans shorthanded.

However, the absence of Joel Embiid wasn’t clear until less than an hour before the two teams tipped off for the night.

Coming down with an illness, Embiid was a late scratch for the Sixers. He joined Danuel House, Kelly Oubre, and Jaden Springer, who all missed the matchup in New Orleans.

When the All-Star big man missed his first matchup of the season last week in Minnesota, the Sixers couldn’t overcome Embiid’s absence. Taking on a tough Minnesota Timberwolves team, Philly came up way short, collecting their second-straight loss at the time.

After they bounced back with two wins, defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Los Angeles Lakers, the Embiid-less Sixers took on yet another notable loss in New Orleans.

“We cannot use that as an excuse,” Sixers head coach Nick Nurse mentioned after the game. “We won’t use it as an excuse.”

From the jump, you could tell it wasn’t the Sixers’ night. Similar to their Monday night matchup against LA, one team got off to a red-hot shooting start while the other went cold early. On Wednesday, the Sixers unfortunately found themselves on the wrong end of the equation.

Shooting just 38 percent from the field, compared to New Orleans’ 78 percent, the Sixers were outscored 39-24 in the first quarter of action. Playing from behind at the start put them so far behind that they were playing catch-up throughout the entire outing.

“What put us in a big hole is we didn’t go out and execute our defensive schemes the way we wanted to from the start of the game,” Nurse explained.

While the head coach admired his team’s fight in the end, where they teased a possible comeback when the Pelicans let their foot off the gas deep into the fourth quarter, the Sixers’ performance was far from inspiring.

They turned the ball over 21 times, which helped New Orleans generate 31 points. The Sixers were also out-rebounded and committed a total of 26 fouls, which led to a ton of frustration throughout the night.

While it’s just one loss, dropping the Sixers to 12-6 on the year, the team knows they need to get back on track as they have a tough matchup against the Boston Celtics on Friday night.