Coach Nick Nurse gives praise to Sixers for resiliency amid injuries

PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia 76ers are sitting at 7-4 following Tuesday's win over the Boston Celtics despite some injury challenges to begin the season. Joel Embiid has played only six games while Paul George has yet to play and Dominick Barlow has only played two games to begin the season.

The good thing for coach Nick Nurse is that at least it isn't nearly as bad as the 2024-25 season when he would have to find a way to get it done with six or seven players missing on a nightly basis. Right now, the challenge is there are only three or four players missing nightly and that helps Nurse manage things a bit better.

Either way, the Sixers have shown a lot of resiliency to win tough games in the clutch despite so many pieces missing.

"We still are going into these games with three or four rotational guys out," Nurse explained. "Like, I think last year, we were going six or seven rotational guys out, but it’s a different team for sure and the fact that we got some youth and speed and we’re able to go out there and scrap with some intensity and play hard and all that kind of stuff and give ourselves a chance, that’s all I keep saying."

The Sixers have been in almost all of their 11 games thus far. The only game where they lost by double digits was the Nov. 5 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers when they lost by 11 on the second night of a back-to-back. Even then, they trailed by 13 in the opening minutes and scrapped their way back to tie the game in the third before the Cavs went on a run.

"I just wanna keep somehow give ourselves a chance," Nurse finished. "We’ve been doing that for, I guess, 10 of the 11 games."

The Sixers now have two days off and will take on the Detroit Pistons on the road to continue NBA Cup play. The Sixers are 0-1 in the Cup when they lost to the Celtics on Oct. 31.

This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Coach Nick Nurse gives praise to Sixers for resiliency amid injuries