Undermanned Sixers fall to Phoenix Suns, 116-113, as Joel Embiid’s 67-footer rims out at the buzzer

Wednesday night marked another episode of As The Undermanned 76ers World Turns.

This one was a thriller. The Phoenix Suns escaped with a 116-113 victory at the Wells Fargo Center after Joel Embiid’s 67-foot heave rimmed out of the basket.

“When I threw it, it looked good,” Embiid said. “It almost did [go in]. I saw the screenshot and it looked like it went in and out. That’s just unfortunate.”

But on this episode, Seth Curry joined Tobias Harris and Ben Simmons as no-shows in what was the Sixers fourth straight game with multiple players sidelined.

Now the question is who’s going to have the night off Thursday night against the Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum.

“I have know idea,” Doc Rivers said when asked if he’s expecting his three players back against the Bucks. " I wouldn’t comment on it today anyway, but I have no idea.

“I’m hoping a few are back. I don’t know if all of them will be back, honestly.”

Rivers said this is something teams go through and unfortunately they’re going through it during a key point of the season.

The Sixers traveled to Milwaukee after the game. Before they left, Rivers said he thought Simmons would make the trip, but added he wasn’t sure.

» READ MORE: Being top seed in Eastern Conference is a must for Sixers

“I mean if he’s not feeling great with the flu and all that, I don’t know,” Rivers said. “I don’t know if I want him on the plane. Do you want to sit next to him? You know what I mean?”

Rivers did say that if Simmons is feeling bad, he thinks rest is more important.

Embiid said he’s going to play against the third-place Bucks (35-22). Wednesday marked the MVP candidate’s ninth game back from being sidelined with a bone bruise in his left knee. Embiid wasn’t supposed to play against the Suns due to not being in the best physical shape.

“But with a bunch of guys out, it’s my job, you know, like I always manage to go out and be a leader, just pushing every night,” he said. “So yeah, I can’t rest even if I’m hurt. I just got to keep pushing, because at the end of the day, like I’ve been saying, that No. 1 seed is important.

“Every single night I have to go out and fight and hopefully, these guys, they get healthier and they come back and they can help us.”

Embiid held his left knee after being subbed out of the game with 2 minutes, 37 seconds remaining in the third quarter. A Sixers’ medical-team member came over to check on him before the four-time All-Star placed what appeared to be a heating pad on the knee.

He checked back into the game with 6:32 left.

But the Sixers fought valiantly before losing.

Chris Paul hit a foul shot with 0.8 seconds left to make it a three point game. Embiid grabbed the rebound and fired the 67-footer, according to the NBA’s play-by-play, that bounced off the backboard and rattled in and out of the rim as time expired.

The Sixers were not happy with their performance, and surely didn’t look at this as a moral victory.

“We got more than enough, especially you know when I’m on the basketball court,” Embiid said of the players who participated in the game. “You know we should win every game.

“There’s no positive to take away from tonight. We just got to be better. We made a lot of mistakes. I made a lot of mistakes with the double-team.”

Embiid finished with 38 points, 17 rebounds, and 4 assists, but had eight turnovers. As a team, the Sixers committed 17 and shot 69.2% from the foul line.

Philly (39-19), which has lost two straight games, remains in first place in the Eastern Conference, a half-game ahead of the Brooklyn Nets (39-20), who lost to the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday.

Harris missed his third consecutive game with right knee soreness. Simmons was sidelined his second straight game with the flu, while Curry missed the game with left hip flexor recovery. While he played on Monday versus the Golden State Warriors, Curry missed Friday’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers with left hip flexor soreness.

So Matisse Thybulle, Furkan Korkmaz, and Shake Milton joined Danny Green and Embiid in the starting lineup.

Green had 18 points, while Tyrese Maxey had 14 points in a reserve role. Reserve George Hill had 11 points in his second game as a Sixer. Thybulle did a solid job of defending Suns All-Star shooting guard Devin Booker.

Booker had scored a game-high 36 points on 14-for-23 shooting against the Sixers back on Feb. 13. That marked his seventh straight with 30-plus point against Philly. However, he finished with 19 points on 6-for-14 shooting with Thybulle as the primary defender.

“I thought he was unbelievable,” Rivers said of Thybulle. “I thought he chased him to exhaustion.”

While he missed all four of his shots, the second-year player finished with three blocks and two steals.

Paul paced the Suns (42-16) with 28 points.

Korkmaz rolled his right ankle while slipping on the floor on his way to attempting a layup with 2:26 into the second half. The Sixers called a timeout after Paul made a three-pointer on the ensuing possession.

During the timeout, Korkmaz was subbed out of the game and went to the locker room to be evaluated. After coming out of the locker room, the swingman rode the exercise bike and did some exercises with his ankle. He returned to the game with 9:05 remaining.

But in regards to playing undermanned, the Sixers aren’t theonly elite team that has been doing that.

While the Sixers want the No. 1 seed, some elite teams are focused on making sure players are 100% healthy for the playoffs over securing a certain seed.

Despite being undermanned, the Sixers were still playing to win. However, there was an incentive to resting players Wednesday in order for them to be healthy Thursday against the Bucks.

Milwaukee prevailed 109-105 in overtime during the teams’ March 17 meeting at The Center. After playing Bucks Thursday, the teams will meet against Saturday in Milwaukee for the final time of the regular season.

“If you win tomorrow, you have a chance to play for the season series,” Rivers said. “But if guys are not healthy, there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Rivers was also asked if there’s a balance to determining his playoff rotation vs. doing everything he can get the No. 1 seed. That may not go hand-in-hand while it would be ideal to do both.

“They usually don’t go hand-in-hand as we call know,” Rivers said, “because some of it is not rest. Some of it is guys are sick or guys or injured as it’s nothing you can do about it.”

Rivers said the Sixers would clearly like to have the best seed possible.

“But we also would rather be healthy at the same time,” he said. “So it is absolutely a balancing act for sure.”