The Philadelphia 76ers repeat the mission of attempting to win without All-Stars Joel Embiid and Paul George when they visit the short-handed Toronto Raptors on Friday night.
Playing without Embiid and George on Wednesday, the 76ers lost 124-109 at home to the Milwaukee Bucks in their season opener.
The Raptors were without key players on Wednesday when they lost 136-106 at home to the Cleveland Cavaliers in their opener. They’ll hope to have some reinforcements to welcome former head coach Nick Nurse, now on the Philadelphia bench, back to town.
The 76ers are without George (left knee bone bruise) at Toronto. Embiid (left knee injury management) was ruled out against Toronto and Sunday at Indiana. George could return against the Pacers.
Tyrese Maxey led Philadelphia with 25 points against Milwaukee but shot 10-for-31 from the field and was 2-for-9 on 3-point attempts.
“We played one game,” Maxey said. “I’m not about to sit here and say that just because (Embiid) was out, we played bad. Yes, we did not win the game, which is the ultimate goal. … I mean, this team, us, winning can’t solely be on Joel Embiid. It just can’t.
“I feel like tonight, we’ve got to make shots. And we’ve got to keep playing the right way. And I think we’ll be better. I’ll definitely be better. So I’m going to worry about that.”
Maxey might have been trying to do too much in compensating for the absence of George and Embiid.
“I wouldn’t say I was pressing,” he said. “I would say more of being ultra-aggressive. I will agree with that. I feel like I came out. I played a little bit too fast. I know (Nurse) wants me to play fast just before the defense loads up, or whatever. But I played a little too fast. There were a couple of times where I could have gotten in there and taken my time on layups where I missed.”
Kelly Oubre Jr. added 21 points for Philadelphia and Andre Drummond had 10 points and 13 rebounds. Caleb Martin added spark off the bench with 12 points and nine rebounds.
Philadelphia shot 41.8 percent (41-for-98) from the field and was 25.8 percent (8-for-31) on 3-point attempts.
The Raptors began the season without RJ Barrett (shoulder), Bruce Brown (knee), Kelly Olynyk (back) and Ja’Kobe Walter (shoulder).
They also lost Immanuel Quickley (right pelvic contusion) for the second half; he had 13 points and four assists.
Quickley and Olynyk did not take part in practice on Thursday, but Barrett was back in the mix.
Scottie Barnes had a subpar night for Toronto with nine points, six rebounds and five assists.
Toronto shot 41.8 percent (36-for-86) from the field, including 12-for-31 (38.7 percent) from 3-point range.
Reserve Chris Boucher led Toronto with 18 points. Gradey Dick added 16 points.
“We got slapped in the face,” Boucher said. “It was probably good for us, especially as young as we are. It’s not easy to win games, so I think it’s good for us to realize that the season has actually started and we have to play a lot harder than we did (Wednesday).”
Toronto was outscored 68-38 in points in the paint.
“We did not get rim protection,” Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said. “But I think it was starting on the ball. Tonight we were getting hit on screens quite a bit. We did not do a good job of avoiding screens and staying in front of the man.”
Philadelphia was 4-0 against Toronto last season.
–Field Level Media