Nick Nurse’s pointed postgame comments illustrate state of the reeling Sixers: ‘You’ve got to play tougher than that’

Nick Nurse’s postgame comments on Friday were calm yet pointed. There was no rant. But there was a message.

The 76ers’ coach said his team’s 103-95 home loss to the Pelicans Friday night — a blowout that flipped into a tight finish — really did follow the tale-of-two-halves cliché. In the first 24 minutes, Nurse called the Sixers’ offensive approach “soft,” and repeatedly lamented their failure to execute the defensive schemes while tumbling into a 35-point deficit. The second half, by the coach’s evaluation, “we did the right thing,” sparking a steady comeback that got the Sixers as close as five points in the game’s final minute.

It was a blatant reminder that this version of the Sixers especially cannot veer from the game plan while so shorthanded, a lesson they are now tasked with bringing into their final 19 regular-season games while jockeying for seeding in a tight Eastern Conference postseason race.

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“Stop trying to hit home runs, or stop trying to do everything at once,” wing Kelly Oubre Jr. said. “Because once we start overthinking, especially with the group that we have out there now, it’s just never good. It’s just about locking in, being game-ready from the tip, and just executing for 48 minutes.

“Those things that Coach puts his time in to tell us, it’s like a cheat sheet, right? We have to actually do those things and execute them at a high level — everybody.”

The Sixers (35-28) have been sputtering for more than a month, with reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Joel Embiid’s knee surgery headlining a seemingly never-ending injury barrage. They are 6-15 since Jan. 25, tumbling from third place in the East standings to seventh. In February, they ranked 28th out of 30 teams in defensive efficiency (120 points allowed per 100 possessions), and 23rd in offensive efficiency (111.1 points per 100 possessions). Since the calendar turned to March, the defense has remained in the bottom third of the league. They are 2-3 in March, but haven’t won since Tyrese Maxey was sidelined with a concussion. He will miss his fourth straight game Sunday night when the Sixers face the New York Knicks.

Friday night, veteran starter Nico Batum (foot soreness) was a late scratch, joining Maxey, and rotation guard De’Anthony Melton (spine stress). Still, KJ Martin spoke following shootaround about needing to push the offensive pace without Embiid. During Nurse’s pregame news conference, the coach stressed kicking out to three-point shooters, after the Grizzlies totaled 15 blocks during Wednesday’s game.

The Sixers launched deep shots on six of their first seven possessions, but mostly on pull-ups the coach described as “at least moderately-to-heavily contested.” On the opposite end, Oubre felt the Pelicans constantly attacking in the open floor and off the dribble, yielding 15 fast-break points and an 8-of-16 mark from three-point range in the first half.

And when those New Orleans shots dropped, that forced the Sixers to go against a set-up defense that boasts length and athleticism as a top-10 unit in efficiency.

“We tried to jump shoot our way to a lead early, and you can’t count on that,” Nurse said. " … That’s not good enough. You’ve got to play tougher than that. You’ve got to put your nose in there and drive it in the paint and try to get to the foul line and draw some defense and kick it out to somebody who’s open.”

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When asked what ignited the halftime refocus, Nurse described a relatively routine locker-room scene, where coaches re-emphasized that game plan and presented the choice to “either quit, or you tighten up your shoes and you get out there and start fighting.” Oubre, though, said the coalescing boos from the crowd was a jarring dose of motivation.

“It was just like, ‘Bro, if we don’t pick it up, they’re going to boo us out the gym. Maybe out the city,’ ” Oubre said. “It was just a message, honestly, that was straightforward. … Everybody felt the energy. We had to come out and fight, and at least show fight, so that we can give ourselves the best chance to maybe come back.

“If we played like we did in the second half in the first half to start the game, it would be a completely different story.”

After halftime, starting forward Tobias Harris commended how the Sixers more physically got into the ball defensively, making passes and shots more challenging. That unlocked his team’s ability to run. The Sixers shot 51.2% from the floor and 7-of-17 from beyond the arc, and outscored the Pelicans 61-40 in the second half.

“We did a very good job of responding,” Harris said. “We just have to kind of fuel off of that.”

That begins with two consecutive games against the New York Knicks, a potential first-round playoff opponent that has also been injury-riddled in recent weeks but has already beaten the Sixers twice. Then, the Sixers visit the suddenly surging Milwaukee Bucks and former coach Doc Rivers. Nine of the Sixers’ 12 remaining games in March are on the road.

When asked if the 19 regular-season games left are enough to reintegrate teammates and prepare for the playoffs, Harris said, “That’s the only time we have, so we’ve got to figure it out.”

And before Nurse left Friday’s postgame media session, he had one more candid response. While key players are sidelined, the coach said, he remains in “super-evaluation mode.”

“I want to see who can execute what we’re going to need to execute when we get our people back,” Nurse said. “I’m still doing that. I think I’m scrutinizing things pretty hard here, so that’s the positive of it. I’m learning a lot right now.”