Practice Notebook: Sixers relying on Maxey’s superstardom, perimeter defense amid Embiid uncertainty

Camden — Tyrese Maxey grinned from ear to ear as he set his feet in the left corner.

Practice was over. It was time for some friendly competition, and he was engaged in a shooting drill with long-time pal Trendon Watford.

"F--k!" Watford yelled, smacking his hands against his legs.

He knew his latest miss, an in-and-out three that hit the rim a little long, was going to cost him in the competition with Maxey.

Maxey rubbed it in. He doubled over as the laughter poured out.

Then he set his feet and effortlessly hit the mark on five consecutive triples.

Maxey will need those moments of levity over an 82-game season.

The joy escapes if you let the responsibilities consume you every time you step into the gym.

Maxey played 29 game minutes straight to end the overtime victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday. He logged 46 minutes on the second night of a back-to-back.

It's an unimaginable workload for a player of his stature.

But it's also one that he seems to want.

Maxey told Nurse that he wanted to play the entire third quarter of Thursday's game. He wanted to be available for his team at a time when they'd been inexplicably vulnerable through the first 14 games of the season.

Maxey went on to manufacture 20 of the team's 22 points in the third quarter, keeping the ship steady through dangerous waters.

"So obviously there's a bunch of possible break points for him. We get to the nine-minute mark of the third quarter, we start deciding whether we'd rather have him finish the quarter or start the fourth," Nurse explained of the thought process behind Maxey's substitution pattern at Saturday's practice.

Maxey felt good, so the staff let him dictate his minutes as the third quarter wore on.

"Then we get to the quarter and that would normally be then since he played the quarter, let's get a couple minutes for him there."

As soon as the quarter ended, Maxey said that he wanted to stay.

Perhaps Nurse would've overruled Maxey's command had the star guard looked even the slightest bit fatigued by the amount of weight he was carrying.

But Maxey wasn't fatigued. There were no signs of fatigue earlier in the day either, when Maxey showed up to the game day review at noon looking "chipper and bright" after 38:30 against the Toronto Raptors the night before.

He had no intention of stepping aside going into the fourth quarter, abandoning his troops — even if only temporarily — to take a rest.

So Nurse wasn't going to stop him.

As long as Maxey continues at this MVP-level pace, Nurse will probably continue to let his motor run.

Frankly, if the Sixers are going to stay above .500 while Joel Embiid's status remains uncertain, he doesn't have much of a choice.

Saturday was a light practice ahead of Sunday's early-afternoon battle with the Miami Heat.

Embiid remains day-to-day. He was assessed by doctors and is still feeling some soreness in his right knee. The Sixers say he needs a little more time, but it is believed that he's progressing in the right direction.

It's unclear how he went from 'doubtful' on Wednesday afternoon to 'out' on the first injury report on Thursday to then needing more time on Saturday. It's unclear how he continues to be a participant at practice but unavailable for games.

Nurse couldn't help but wear the exasperation on his face. Not with Embiid. Not with the reporter who asked. Not with the situation, itself. But with the fact that he just didn't have a definitive answer.

"I think that...I can't predict any of it," Nurse said of the big picture as it pertains to the cause of Embiid's right knee soreness being identified and moving forward from there.

"I think we're trying to take the best care we can of him and get him out there. He wants to play, he's being very diligent. He's on his stuff. He's doing a lot to try to get back on the floor and think it'll be soon. I know this has been a long 'I think it will be soon', but we just keep doing the right things and keep listening to what the doctors tell us."

The Sixers are 9-6. Paul George is healthier. He looked his best as a Sixer on Thursday. Maxey has taken another leap. Philadelphia is not sinking. They are not treading water. They are fine — for now.

The anguish you feel about Embiid's situation has nothing to do with the Sixers being in dire straits because they are not in a distressed situation right now. The agitation you feel comes from how the current uncertainty picks at the scabs of last season.

It is OK that Embiid isn't being pressured to come back before he feels ready because the team is surviving without him. 

But that can change at any moment.

In the meantime, Nurse is going to try to manufacture some center minutes any way he can.

That includes leveraging Dominick Barlow's strengths.

"I'm not 100 percent sure yet. But he's playing hard," Nurse said of what Barlow brings to the team's staffing at the center position.

Nurse has noticed traces of his shot-blocking and rim-protection skills.

"But again, we're just trying to move some size there. Some games it's him, some games it's Bona, some games it's Walker, some games it's Drum, some games it's Joel."

For the time being, the Sixers are throwing players into the five spot and seeing who sticks.

Nurse likes the efforts Barlow and Jabari Walker have given in their minutes at center.

He might remember the impressions those two made over the team's next two games. Adem Bona has resumed on-court work after spraining his right ankle, but he will be unavailable for at least the next two games.

With the limited staffing at the five, the Sixers will have no choice but to call on their perimeter defense in the short term.

Despite having inconsistent rim protection, the Sixers are 14th in points allowed per 100 halfcourt plays, according to Cleaning The Glass.

Their transition defense has been worse than mediocre. They allow the ninth most shots at the rim.

They're going to have to keep getting by on Maxey's ascent to superstardom and perimeter defense.

"We know how good we can be as a team defensively. Coming in, guys like me, Justin, PG and VJ guard one through three, one through four at all times," Quentin Grimes told reporters on Saturday.

"So we just come in with the right mindset out there, we can be one of the best defensive teams in the league, for sure."