Feb 11, 2026; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia 76ers forward Justin Edwards (11) and forward Marjon Beauchamp (16) talk during a timeout in the second half against the New York Knicks at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
It's a dilemma the Sixers knew they would have to encounter way back before the season started, then dealt with it admirably when it arrived, but lately have somewhat lost their way in how to survive it.
That dilemma is the absence of Joel Embiid. Chronic knee problems will probably plague him for the rest of his career and will make availability more than a bit wonky. But it is an obstacle the organization, his coach and teammates know they are going to have to deal with, and of late, they haven't been doing that well.
Included in that is Wednesday night's embarrassing 138-89 loss to the visiting New York Knicks at Xfinity Mobile Arena, and the cause for concern is starting to reach pretty high levels. It was the team's sixth loss in its last seven games without their star player. It was also the last game before the All-Star break, meaning they can forget about Wednesday's debacle, rest weary legs, and have hopes that the extended rest will enable Embiid to be available for most of the remaining 28 games, beginning Thursday, Feb. 19 against the Atlanta Hawks.
"I think any time we're without Joel we have to, offensively, make sure that lots of guys pitch in to cover all that he creates," said coach Nick Nurse. "Offensively, that's the biggest thing. Just the offensive creation. It can't be one guy, it's got to be everybody that hits the floor has to chip in somehow offensively. That would be the answer."
There were no answers at all against the Knicks, who won for the second time in a few weeks on the Sixers' home court. New York beat them up inside and out, with their starters, their reserves and the fan base, which again was littered with orange and blue.
THE KNICKS ABSOLUTELY HUMILIATE THE SIXERS IN PHILLY
LED BY AS MANY AS 52
PHILADELPHIA IS MSG SOUTH
pic.twitter.com/DsqFuSAzve
Being without your best player is never going to be an easy task, but when you know it is going to be a regular occurrence, preparing for it should make the task of winning a bit easier. And it was early on for the Sixers. When Embiid missed 13 of 17 games at the beginning of the season, the team was able to post a 7-6 record. Lately, however, it's been a different story with those six losses in seven games without the 7-2 big man.
"It seemed like we had one really good game on the road trip (without Embiid)," said Nurse, alluding to the 113-94 win against Golden State. "There've been some not as good nights, and most of it is offensively when I thought we were operating really well early in the year with some of the stuff that we kind of put in in training camp. Just got to maybe get back and go over it a little bit and look at that stuff because we're obviously capable of playing pretty decently offensively as well."
Early in the season without Embiid, teams perhaps didn't know of the impact rookie VJ Edgecombe was going to be. They certainly didn't anticipate the contributions of Trendon Watford, Dominick Barlow or Jabari Walker. And the spark Quentin Grimes supplied off the bench was a huge offensive lift for the team when Embiid was out. Adjustments are what the NBA is all about, and now teams know to double Tyrese Maxey every chance they get and have more of an awareness for Edgecombe and the others. It has made life without "The Process" quite difficult of late.
"It's weird because you have to play multiple different ways," said Maxey of playing with and without Embiid. "A lot of times he sits out on back-to-backs so it's hard. You're going from playing one way with him or without him early in the season, and he comes back so then you've got to play that way and then play a different way when he's there. Which is okay, it's fine. It's the reality of it and we'll be alright. I think he'll be here more than he isn't here when we get back. But you've got to maintain those games that he's not there and Paul (George) probably won't be there until the end, so we've just got to maintain. We did a really good job in Golden State, we did a really good job for two quarters in Portland, honestly. And then that third quarter they just made almost every shot and we couldn't recover from it. It's going to be okay."
No one has to work harder without Embiid in uniform than Maxey. Again Wednesday, he faced constant double-teams in which the Knicks jumped two players at him whenever the Sixers ran their high pick-and-roll. Maxey still responded with 32 points, but got little help from others.
When Embiid sits, Nurse has usually pushed Andre Drummond into the starting lineup and kept Adem Bona in the familiar role of coming off the bench for his center minutes. Wednesday, Nurse started Bona to try and match up better with the Knicks. But the second-year big man got two early fouls, was repeatedly out of position defensively and was more harm than good on a night when most of his teammates were as well. The backup center position is something Nurse will have to think hard about during the break. That is once he gets Wednesday's game out of his mind.
“Folks have speculated on the improvements of our East competitors. I don’t see it”
— Sixers president Daryl Morey at the trade deadline
Tonight Jose Alvarado dropped 8 threes on his head pic.twitter.com/Dznupqdl39
"Really disappointing," he said after his team fell to 30-24. "Obviously we had zero readiness and energy, physically or mentally. It kind of got to the half and the game had kind of been settled by then and just going over all the things that we've already gone over that we couldn't get done. There just was no energy, either physically or mentally tonight. A couple guys tried hard and played pretty well but for the most part the execution of what the game plan was and all that stuff was just not getting done at all from the opening tip."
Certainly not the ideal way to head on a mini vacation, but having the caveat that Embiid wasn't available makes it a bit easier to swallow.
"In general our guys are a little tired, but that's what the break is for," said Maxey, who will be an All-Star starter Sunday after competing in the three-point contest on Saturday. "Rejuvenate, get your legs back under you, get mentally prepared for this stretch because after the break it's go-time. It's go-time for every team in the NBA that's trying to make a push, for sure. They want to play their best basketball down the stretch and get ready for the playoffs."
As do the Sixers. They hope they'll be able to do that with a healthy roster.
