How the Sixers have managed a rare four-day break between games

The Sixers’ “low-minute games” — aka scrimmage work between nonrotation players and staff — are common at the end of practices.

Joel Embiid participating is much rarer.

The NBA’s reigning MVP needed to up his conditioning after missing two games last week with illness that also kept star point guard Tyrese Maxey and reserve Jaden Springer out of action. It also was a product of an abnormal four-day break between games, a wrinkle because the knockout portion of the league’s new in-season tournament began with Monday’s quarterfinals.

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Coach Nick Nurse settled on this approach to the Sixers’ break in the schedule: Two days off, and two days of “sharp, intense” practices before traveling for Wednesday’s game at the Washington Wizards.

“We needed the two days because of the situations we’re in,” Nurse said following Monday’s practice. “And these two, we’ll make the most of it [by] practicing hard.”

Nurse acknowledged he initially did not plan for consecutive days without practice. About a week earlier in Oklahoma City, after all, the coach said the Sixers needed more on-court time together to continue implementing the players acquired in the James Harden trade and to drill defensive principles.

Yet when the “bug” began hitting players, common sense said that once they got off the road, they should separate and go dark on full-contact team work for an additional day to try to prevent spreading. Most healthy players, though, still came to the practice facility for individual sessions, Nurse said.

By Monday, reserve guard Patrick Beverley described practice as “lit” and “competitive,” partially thanks to some one-on-one games. Maxey was back. So were Springer and reserve wing Danuel House Jr. (quadriceps bruise). Both joined Embiid in that post-practice scrimmage. Starting forward Nicolas Batum was in “most” of the workout, Nurse said, but is still hoping to “buy a little more time” to heal the finger he reinjured last week, causing him to miss Friday’s loss in Boston.

And the newsiest personnel item was that wing Kelly Oubre Jr., who has been out for more than three weeks with a fractured rib from a reported hit-and-run accident, is expected to return for Wednesday’s game.

The extended time between games also has allowed for deeper discussion among the coaching staff about where the Sixers sit nearing the 20-game mark.

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One topic, Nurse said, was the balance between offensive rebounding and transition defense. Though the Sixers entered Tuesday ranked seventh in the NBA in offensive rebounding (12.3 per game), sixth in second-chance points (15.9 per game) and eighth in overall rebounding (45.1), they also were 28th in fastbreak points surrendered (16.4 per game). Those two elements can be directly connected because sending more players to crash the offensive glass can mean fewer are able to get back on defense.

“You’ve got to be weighing that stuff out,” Nurse said. “… That’s not that easy to do sometimes. Because it feels really awful when [an opposing player] leaks out and they throw a one-on-zero [pass] up and lay it in. And then you look down and say, ‘Oh my goodness, we’ve got 26 points on offensive rebounds tonight.’ Twenty-six is more than two, but that two feels really bad in the moment.

“You’ve got to careful analyzing some of that stuff, so we’ve been going through some of that.”

When asked Monday about this scheduling quirk, Beverley immediately pointed out that the Sixers’ three back-to-backs in the season’s first month also could be viewed as unconventional. Yet his team will not have this many days between games again until the All-Star break in mid-February. They also only have one other three-day break the rest of the season, from Jan. 7-9.

So Beverley has also been utilizing this time, just in a different way than Embiid.

“Get home. Sleep in your own bed. Rest up. Rehydrate. Rest,” Beverley said. “Repeat, repeat, repeat. That’s the vibe.”

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