Sixers leave Denver still searching for answers after postgame shouting in the locker room

DENVER — The “Where’s Embiid at?” chant at Ball Arena rumbled briefly during Tuesday’s second quarter, then more boisterously resurfaced about midway through the fourth of the Nuggets’ 144-109 thrashing of the 76ers.

But the most notable sound — at least in regard to the Sixers — came from the postgame visitors’ locker room. That space shares a wall with the Nuggets’ news conference room, where multiple sources there told The Inquirer that they could hear screaming from the Sixers’ contingent on the opposite side.

Sixers players did not shy away when asked about the intense environment. After a week of hanging tough (yet still losing) against strong competition while shorthanded, Tuesday quickly devolved into a clunker that left coach Nick Nurse irritated with the mental preparation and schematic discipline from the opening tipoff.

» READ MORE: Doc Rivers understands Sixers’ struggles without Joel Embiid: ‘It’s just hard’

It also was a harsh reminder that a Sixers team that dropped its seventh consecutive matchup to fall to a season-worst 12 games under .500, at 15-27, is still searching for answers as it begins the second half of the regular season.

“Coach was trying to make a point,” reserve big man Guerschon Yabusele said of the postgame scene, “to make us react, make us understand what’s going on. Because at the end of the day, we’re still in the season. It’s not over yet.

“I think [Nurse] just wanted us to react and go back and really think about what’s going on, and everybody, individually, bring something different to the table and bring something positive.”

By the time reporters entered the locker room about 15 minutes after news of the yelling first surfaced on social media, the Sixers’ collective mood had clearly calmed. Paul George, a 15-year veteran and perennial All-Star, called the blunt messaging “warranted” because “we’ve got to take ownership of that. We have to respond to the performance.”

All-Star point guard Tyrese Maxey, a crucial team leader, said it occurred among “a group of people who want to win.” Maxey and Yabusele separately stressed the importance of using their personalities to keep teammates positive during this skid and remaining regular-season grind.

“That’s just frustration,” Maxey said. “But at the end of the day, Coach Nurse said something that was extremely correct, as far as, ‘Man, we’re all professionals in here. You can do the basics. You can do the stuff of, like, being on time and being present and going out there and doing the fundamentals.’

“He believes in everybody in here, and that’s the coach that you want to have on your side.”

» READ MORE: Sixers ‘in survival mode’ as they near the midway point of a disastrous, injury-riddled season

This is not the first time a candid Sixers postgame environment has become public. Back in November, a team meeting following an ugly loss at the Miami Heat delayed Nurse’s required postgame news conference by more than an hour. And when details from the meeting leaked to national media — including that Maxey called out superstar Joel Embiid for tardiness — the 2023 NBA Most Valuable Player responded with “Whoever leaked that is a real piece of [expletive].”

Tuesday night, Nurse was displeased with a Sixers defense that utterly failed on a night when an offense that has sputtered all season finally knocked down shots.

Denver’s high-powered offense is anchored by three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic, who makes it hum with his generational passing ability and multilevel scoring. Yet the Sixers fell flat in the intangible clichés such as effort and physicality, leading to Denver’s eye-popping 18 first-quarter fastbreak points (and 37 for the game) and 68 total points in the paint that were often set up by too-deep positioning near the rim. By the final buzzer, the Nuggets had tied their season high in points.

“We just didn’t bring it,” Nurse said. “You’re going to have some of these throughout the year, where, for whatever reason, you’re just stuck in mud and you’re moving slow or whatever. I just don’t think we’re in a great position to have one of those now, so not very happy.”

The Sixers also ended their last swing West with a lopsided loss to the Golden State Warriors, though that was on the second night of a back-to-back. Embiid also played in that game, and at the time appeared to finally be gaining some traction during an injury-plagued season. Then, he missed six games with a sprained foot and, once that healed, the past three contests after his surgically-repaired knee swelled up following a workout last week.

That kept Embiid at home, far from the arena where last January’s Sixers visit turned bizarre and vicious. Embiid was a last-minute scratch from that game with a tweaked knee following a shaky individual warm-up, prompting numerous Nuggets fans to taunt him from the stands — which he later encouraged upon joining the bench late in the game — along with some uncalled for traditional- and social-media discourse.

» READ MORE: Sielski: We’ve seen the best of the Sixers with Joel Embiid. What a mess. What a shame.

Days later, an already-laboring Embiid suffered a torn meniscus that remains an ongoing issue nearly a year later. Reporting from The Athletic at the time indicated that some inside the Sixers organization believed Embiid was only on the floor the night the Warriors’ Jonathan Kuminga fell on his knee because of the outside backlash he received for missing that game in Denver.

Still, Embiid has not played on the Nuggets’ home floor since 2019. For perspective, Sixers rookie guard Justin Edwards, who finished with 11 points and three rebounds in 28 minutes Tuesday, was in eighth grade back then. And Tuesday’s absence ruined the NBA’s plan to match the world’s two best centers during “Rivals Week,” which both coaches lamented before the game. Denver’s Michael Malone, though, also took it as an opportunity to praise the consistent availability of Jokic, who played in at least 69 games in each of his first nine NBA seasons.

“You just admire and respect his toughness mentally and physically,” Malone said of Jokic. “To go out there and play at a high level, regardless of what’s going on with him and his body, he finds a way to overcome that night in and night out.”

Though Embiid’s health is the Sixers’ most significant problem, Tuesday’s defensive face plant illustrated that is far from their only problem. The schedule will not provide any immediate favors, as they next face a home-road back-to-back against the Eastern Conference-leading Cleveland Cavaliers and Chicago Bulls, the team they are chasing for 10th place in the conference standings. The Feb. 6 trade deadline is also looming.

It remains to be seen whether Nurse’s more forceful — or, at least, more audible — postgame messaging from Mile High pays off. Yet Yabusele reminded that the people inside those walls, not listening from the outside, are “all we got right here” as they aim to salvage a season that is becoming a spiral.

“That’s not going to change,” Yabusele said. “So we’ve got to fight together.”