Sixers’ agonizing offensive struggles continue in loss at Lakers: ‘We just couldn’t get it in the basket’

LOS ANGELES — A visibly frustrated Nick Nurse plopped into his seat inside a Crypto.com Arena auxiliary room late Friday.

The 76ers coach was not irked because of the way his team played in a 101-94 loss to the Lakers, their seventh defeat in their past 10 games. He was upset the way the Sixers played still yielded an unsatisfactory result.

“We just couldn’t score, man,” Nurse said. “And I didn’t think it was poor offense. It was just poor shot-making. … They’re out there killing themselves, and there’s nothing at the end of it for them — except for an ‘L.’”

Being unable to complete the sport’s main objective — getting the ball through the basket — has become an agonizing, never-ending theme for the Sixers (38-32) without reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Joel Embiid, who was averaging a league-high 35.3 points and career-best 5.7 assists per game before undergoing knee surgery more than six weeks ago.

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Since the All-Star break, the Sixers entered Saturday ranked 28th out of 30 teams in the league in offensive efficiency (106.5 points per 100 possessions). During that same span, they failed to reach 100 points in eight of 16 games. Friday night, the Sixers shot a dreadful 34.4% from the field, including 8-of-37 from long range.

Also frustrating for Nurse: The immense struggles on that end of the floor have persisted even while the Sixers’ defense has begun to surge, with 12 games now remaining in the regular season.

They entered Saturday ranked fifth in efficiency over their past 10 games, at 109.1 points allowed per 100 possessions. There have been fewer schematic blunders, Nurse said. They forced 20 turnovers in consecutive games, a style so aggressive that Suns coach Frank Vogel said following Wednesday’s matchup in Phoenix that the Sixers “foul all the time.” The Sixers have instilled that relentless activity — part of that intangible “fight” Nurse had been clamoring for as recently as last week — even without Embiid, an interior anchor who can protect the rim and cover up teammate mistakes, along with injured perimeter pests De’Anthony Melton and Robert Covington.

“It’s not easy to play with that much energy defensively when the ball keeps rimming out,” Nurse said. “Or not hitting the rim. Or whatever was happening.”

Nurse said he was generally pleased with his team’s offensive spacing against the Lakers. And their shot selection. And that they only committed nine turnovers. But he did not want to glance at their points in the paint (42), because, “I looked one time in the fourth quarter, and decided not to look anymore.” The coach lamented the lack of makes on jumpshots between six and eight feet from the basket. And he estimates the Sixers misfired on at least 10 “wide-open” corner three-pointers, except for one that center Mo Bamba threw up at the end of the shot clock.

“That was a bad possession where we actually scored,” Nurse said. “So it was kind of the story of the night.”

Nurse, a known shooting guru, trusts those percentages will eventually swing in a more positive direction for the Sixers. The list of proven shot-makers on this team is long, from starters Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris, to veterans Kyle Lowry and Nico Batum, to trade-deadline acquisition Buddy Hield.

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Yet the coach also vowed to review the film to ensure his in-game assessment of the offense is accurate. Harris added that more opportunities could exist to drive and kick out for an even better attempt but, overall, “everybody in this locker room is confident enough to know that those are shots we want, and those are shots we can make.”

Nurse, though, reminded that many of these Sixers remain “way outside” their typical roles, which often involves playing off of Embiid. The hope is this experience leads to individual development — Kelly Oubre Jr.’s recent success is a prime example — and an increased comfort in organizing the offense during Embiid’s future in-game rest periods. Nurse also conceded that, in the short term, “maybe there’s only incremental gains you can make” when multiple players abruptly move up the offensive pecking order — and stay there for significant time.

One of those shouldering more responsibility is Maxey, who on Friday scored 22 of his 27 points in the second half after Nurse reminded him in the locker room that “you’re our best option.” When asked if he finds himself hoping Embiid comes back soon, the 23-year-old Maxey said that sentiment likely applies to “basketball in general.”

“He’s not walking through those doors right now,” Maxey said. “This is who we’ve got. It can be done. We’ve done it. We’ve won games. We’ve won tough games. We’ve beat good teams. We’ve stayed in there with good teams. We should have beat good teams, and we lost at the end.

“So it’s very doable, and we’ve just got to execute down the stretch.”

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That’s when the Lakers finally created some separation Friday, leading by nine points with 2:11 remaining. Then the Sixers generated enough offense to trim the gap to five, and seized even more momentum when Maxey swiped a steal with 20.1 seconds to play.

But Maxey missed the corner three-pointer. It was a fitting end to another frustrating game for the Sixers, continuing this agonizing offensive stretch.

“I say [that], as long as we play our guts out, I can live with it,” Nurse said. “I’m having a hard time right now living with it, because I felt like we really did play so hard and executed so well on defense tonight.

“And I thought we executed on offense, too. We just couldn’t get it in the basket.”