April 15, 2024
Eric Hartline/USA TODAY Sports
Former teammates and good friends, Joel Embiid and Jimmy Butler, will once again do battle in the postseason on Wednesday night in the Play-In Tournament.
When reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid returned from an absence that lasted over two months due to a meniscus injury on April 2, the Sixers were ambitious. The hope: Embiid could get on his feet quickly, help the Sixers surge over their final eight games and help them avoid the Play-In Tournament by nabbing one of the top six seeds in the Eastern Conference.
Embiid's return was a wild success: he looked much better than anticipated playing in six of the team's eight remaining contests. The Sixers did not just go undefeated in Embiid's appearances after his return. They ran the table, ending the season on an eight-game winning streak. And yet, by the time the dust settled Sunday afternoon, they found themselves as the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference, destined for the Play-In Tournament for the first time in franchise history.
On Wednesday night, the Sixers will host the Miami Heat in the first game of the Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament, with the winner going on to face the No. 2 seed New York Knicks in the first round of the playoffs. The loser of that game will face the winner of the game between No. 9 and No. 10 seed, the Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks, with the winner of that contest facing the No. 1 seed Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs and the loser being eliminated.
"Obviously, we've had some great battles with them," Nurse said of the Heat, with whom the Sixers split the season series 2-2. "I think you always expect that with them. The mindset is to keep playing well and put everything you can into it."
The teams faced each other four times in the regular season — including twice in the last month — but that does not exactly reflect the frequency with which these teams have seen each other at full strength. Only the final game of the four-game season series featured either team's superstars, Joel Embiid and Jimmy Butler, who each missed the first three contests between the two teams.
That game, a rock-fight on April 4, ultimately went the Sixers' way, thanks in large part to a massive showing from not just Embiid, but also first-time All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey, who scored 37 points to go with 11 assists and nine rebounds. The game felt significant in the moment, but in retrospect Maxey's dazzling performance did not just swing the outcome of that regular season contest — it decided the location for the Play-In Tournament. Had the Sixers lost that game, their upcoming contest against the Heat would have taken place in Miami.
The Sixers are finally enjoying a relatively clean bill of health after several months of constantly having key contributors on the shelf. But they will not be at 100 percent on Wednesday, in all likelihood: De'Anthony Melton, who missed 39 out of 42 games, wiping out the vast majority of his second half of the season, is facing a "journey" ahead of being cleared to play against the Heat, Nurse said after Sunday's game — prior to which Melton was ruled out.
Melton played 15 minutes in his return on Tuesday night, logged just five minutes on Friday night — none of those minutes came in the second half — and then did not play Sunday afternoon. While Nurse did not say outright that Melton's back responded negatively to the two games of action, he certainly made a point to stop short of saying it responded positively.
Nurse also pointed out that even if Melton was in a better state physically, he is still in the process of ramping up — getting back into the swing of things not just in terms of how his back feels, but also in terms of playing basketball alongside several new teammates. Nurse argued that the Play-In Tournament is a suboptimal environment to give minutes to someone in that stage of their recovery, which is hard to contend with.
Additionally, Nurse all but ruled out a potential postseason return of Robert Covington, who has not played since the end of 2023 due to a bone bruise in his knee. Nurse said Covington simply has not been able to do much pain-free basketball activity, and that he is extremely unlikely to make a return.
The focus remains, however, on who the Sixers do have available in the immediate future. When asked about positive developments that could carry into the postseason after Sunday's season finale, Nurse first spoke about Tobias Harris, who scored 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds in one of his best performances of the last month.
"It's our season on the line so it's now or never for us," Harris said of the upcoming Play-In Tournament after Sunday's win. "Every game here on out that we play is a must-win, so that's how we're looking at this."
Nurse also shouted out two of his most trusted veterans who were not on the team at the start of the season, Nic Batum and Kyle Lowry, who against Brooklyn each scored zero points but managed to impact winning in others ways— for Lowry, it was primarily passing, while Batum left his mark on the game with his terrific defensive showing.
"Our two vets, Kyle and Nico, don't score, and both played excellent," Nurse said. "Kyle moved a couple of passes onto some shots, Nico really worked on [Brooklyn guard] Cam Thomas and did a good job on him."
But as anybody who has followed this team knows, it all revolves around Embiid. Despite missing the season finale due to injury management, Nurse believes his crown jewel is prepared for the first of many tasks at hand.
"He'll be ready to go."
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