The 76ers turned Victor Wembunyama and the visiting Spurs into a spectacle factory in San Antonio on Tuesday, and their 131-91 loss at home understated just how bad their performance was. VJ Edgecombe was injured just before halftime, adding yet another stink to another poor performance from Philadelphia without Joel Embiid.
This is what I see.
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A team without answers
We’ll start our review of a game against the 44-win Spurs in an odd place: Andre Drummond. The veteran center has struggled for much of the past few months, but showed everything that’s wrong with this team in three or four minutes Tuesday night.
Drummond’s job in this game is as simple as Victor Wembanya having to work on both ends of the court (preferably both ends). But it requires role players to focus on their role and understand to do their job and not get caught up in some larger one-on-one battle with players who are better and younger than you. Play hard defense, rebound the ball, play opportunistic basketball around the rim, set hard screens. Instead, what we got was a stretch of the second quarter in which Drummond decided to let the Sixers go against the Spurs, his own personal battle with Wembunyama, who hit four 3-pointers in the first half but missed every one of them, including one that hit the rim almost entirely from the right wing. Whatever the reason, he found himself in a trash-talking battle with the fiery Frenchman, who happily barked in Drummond’s face after he drained a 3-pointer at the basket.
I wouldn’t mind Drummond trying to “meet the moment” with his offense against Wembunyama if it comes with a focused, determined effort on defense, but he’s as lazy and cynical here as he has been for much of the past 12 weeks. He didn’t know how to cover Wembanyama with or without help. If he comes on, Wembanyama will break through him and kick to the open shooter in the corner while helping swarm into the middle. When Drummond went down, Wembanya punished him for giving him extra space. As an assistant, Drummond was brutal, uninterested in driving to the rim and often swatting in the air rather than trying to slide into advantageous positions.
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Here’s an interesting stat reminder from my friend Tim Cato at ALLCITY: Drummond became just the second player in NBA history to start a game, total less than five minutes and take seven shots.
Nick Nurse’s response was… to keep him in the game until he picked up his third foul midway through the second quarter. Drummond is able to do all this because he allow arrive. This isn’t the first time Drummond has gotten a little too big in Philadelphia, and he’s clearly not worried about losing his spot in the rotation. That’s what happened to Drummond that night, and at this point I have to ask, why wait until now?
Regardless, focusing too much on one person misses the true meaning. Drummond feels capable of taking complete control of the game, which is symptomatic of the directionless style and structure the Sixers have chosen. Comparing Philadelphia’s setup to San Antonio’s setup, there’s a world of difference, with the Spurs passing the ball all over the floor and running without the ball, while the Sixers are trying to win on their own over and over again.
The Spurs, if Tuesday’s meeting didn’t make it clear, find a way to get everyone involved and have players on the roster with a variety of skills they can fall back on if their main thing goes wrong (defense included!). The Sixers have limited players who mostly stand on offense or move side to side in dribble handoffs, knocking down open 3-pointers with overzealous help from the other end’s blindside. Humiliating losses began to pile up, raising questions about how the foundation was run. this We should learn lessons after the debacle in 2024-25.
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Sure, the talent gap was glaringly obvious on Tuesday, but 61 games into the season, there are very few moments where you think, “Oh my gosh, the Sixers really did something creative” to describe a quarter, a game or a stretch of the season. They’re good because their top talent is pretty good, and it’s one of the ugliest watches in basketball when a less talented team has to try the same style of winning with their star.
No one needs to explain to me how important Joel Embiid is to the Sixers as a basketball team and an organization. I don’t need to remind everyone that Paul George is a douchebag and was suspended 25 games in connection with the league’s anti-drug policy. But I don’t think it’s an impossible ask for the Sixers to have an identity beyond over-help on defense and ruthless isolation play on offense without those two players. One of the key things Nick Nurse was asked to do after the joyless drudgery of last season was to develop a plan and identity in the absence of veterans. They believed they had done that on a sunny October day, but when asked to deliver in 2026, they looked dejected.
One could legitimately blame the front office for failing to upgrade this team at the deadline, trading Jared McCain for future-proof assets, a move that actually suggests “later is more important than now.” Morey’s message to fans is that they have to be perfectly happy with what they look like when healthy, ignoring the fact that they need to maintain that form with a cast of injury-plagued stars, while giving up fan favorites that the public is willing to wait patiently for. Of course, it’s hard to ignore that the head coach didn’t see much use in McCain before the second-year guard immediately began stepping into a backup role for the defending champions and current No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, which has more guard depth than Philadelphia has to offer.
There was nothing outstanding about the Sixers in this game. Aside from Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, they haven’t done much well lately. That seems bad for a team that keeps heading toward a potential playoff spot as the regular season clock ticks away.
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VJ Edgecombe injured
Another major factor in the Spurs’ defeat was a poor start from Philadelphia’s young backcourt. With fans heavily invested in Tyrese Maxey and V.J. Edgecomb, there are plenty of excuses for poor shooting performance and poor starts to games, citing injuries and other players on the roster. So let’s be clear – they started poorly against the Spurs on their own.
Edgecomb was an absolute nightmare when attacking Spurs, and it wasn’t for a lack of trying. He might be a little also Gearing up for a game against a Western Conference contender that boasts the Western Conference Rookie of the Month, Edgecombe started shooting early and missed all but a dunk in transition. Even when he was able to create a seemingly easy mid-range jumper with Wembunyama well out of reach, Edgecombe misfired badly, adding a ton of bricks to the team.
Tyrese Maxey was at least able to put up some numbers in the third quarter after knocking down two 3-pointers after halftime, but I find people are more than willing to forgive his horrible start just because he does it more often than Embiid and George. He was not focused on the defensive end and either took unnecessary risks or defended without interest.
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Talk about going from bad to worse. At the end of a miserable half in the backcourt, Edgecomb was fouled by Carter Bryant, hit the hardwood hard, limped to the free throw line, and walked away for the rest of the night. We’ll see if this is just a precaution in the event of a blowout or a symptom of a bigger problem, but it’s the icing on the cake for the Sixers against the Spurs.
Other considerations
– I guess Cam Payne shot the ball well in the first half.
