Sixers takeaways: Philly is East's worst, can't stay healthy in Clippers loss

Last-place squad

Wednesday's loss dropped the Sixers into last place in the Eastern Conference. The Milwaukee Bucks are also 1-6, but have the tiebreaker after routing the Sixers, 124-109, on opening night.

The Sixers opened the season with consecutive losses before defeating the Pacers in overtime on Oct. 27. They’ve lost four straight games by an average of 10.3 points since then. And they’ve had one of the NBA’s easiest schedules. The 7-1 Suns and 5-4 Grizzlies are the only teams they've played with winning records.

Another injury

Tyrese Maxey didn’t play in the fourth quarter due to right hamstring soreness. Asked if it will keep him out Friday against the Lakers, Nick Nurse said, “I don’t have any idea at this point. But I think we’re just really precautionary.”

The Sixers trailed 84-68 when Maxey exited the game. He did not score while missing three shots and rating as a minus-16 in the third quarter. “He was feeling [tightness] a little bit,” Nurse said, “and it was a game, the type of game where there was not that much of a reason to try to push it through.”

Paul George, who had 18 points in his return to Los Angeles, missed the first five games with a left knee bone bruise. Joel Embiid was cleared to play after missing the first six games due to left knee injury management. But Wednesday was the first game of his suspension for an altercation with The Inquirer’s Marcus Hayes.

Foul trouble for Oubre

Oubre has committed 16 fouls over the past three games. He committed five against the Grizzlies on Saturday. Then Oubre fouled out against the Suns on Monday. And he had five fouls against the Clippers.

“Probably just need to be more disciplined, be in the right spots, which I thought I was a lot of the time,” Oubre said of how to cut down his foul trouble. “But I gotta watch the film and continue to just make sure that they can’t hit me with any tic-tacs."