P.J. Tucker is using his voice, veteran presence to steady the ship during the Sixers’ 0-3 start

P.J. Tucker perhaps delivered the loudest postgame message following the 76ers’ shocking loss to the lowly San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night, reminding teammates that no NBA opponent is going to gift them a victory.

The 37-year-old forward is not one to overblow the Sixers’ disappointing 0-3 start. But these are times when Tucker’s leadership can hold value.

“It’s just a veteran’s point of view,” Tucker said Monday after the shootaround ahead of the Sixers’ matchup against the Indiana Pacers. “What I see, what’s going on just as a team — me included, everybody — just coming together, playing hard and being on the same page.

“A lot of small things happen throughout the game, little nuances that people just wouldn’t understand, and it’s stuff that we’ve just got to get better at. It’s not that we don’t do it or have a rough time doing it. It’s just consistently doing it enough to be able to win games.”

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“Communication” has arguably been the Sixers’ most popular buzzword since they opened training camp one month ago. That intangible is also one of Tucker’s specialties, both while barking out defensive calls during a game and in private locker-room conversations. As a newcomer to these Sixers, Tucker said he has been paying attention to how teammates respond to various styles of messaging.

Tucker has also become known for impacting games in ways that do not appear in the box score. When asked to divulge more about those “little nuances,” Tucker kept it vague by saying “really small team things that every team goes through and you have to have happen to be able to win.”

“We’ve just got to figure out how to still win games even when we’re not scoring,” Tucker added. “… That’s what shapes a team. A team gets its character from those types of wins.”

Tucker is averaging 4.7 points and 4.3 rebounds in 33.7 minutes through three games. In stretches against the Spurs and Milwaukee Bucks, he shifted from forward to center in a small-ball lineup he likes as a “change-up” because it opens the floor for ball movement and attacking drives. Tucker also acknowledged he is “still trying to get all the way back” with movement and conditioning following an offseason arthroscopic procedure on his left knee.