Inside Sixers: Memphis reunions, Tyrese Maxey’s progress, and the best locker room tidbits from the week

HOUSTON — Ja Morant’s father, Tee, sauntered over to FedEx Forum’s visitors’ tunnel a few minutes before Friday’s tipoff, hoping to catch Sixers players and staff as they entered the court for pregame warmups.

Sixers coach Doc Rivers stopped to embrace Tee and chat for a few seconds. But when Tee called for the “big fella,” Joel Embiid delivered his desired message with a few words without breaking his stride to the floor.

Tee — and his All-Star son — ultimately left their home arena victorious, after the Sixers fell to the Grizzlies, 117-109, in Memphis. The Sixers have dropped their last two games, tempering what had been a successful run of seven wins in nine games despite a slew of injuries to crucial players. The good news: All-Star guard James Harden is nearing his return, possibly as soon as Monday’s game in Houston to wrap this three-game road trip.

Here are some behind-the-scenes moments that defined the week.

» READ MORE: Sixers vs. Grizzlies takeaways: Not good enough vs. tougher competition without James Harden and Tyrese Maxey

There was understandable buzz around De’Anthony Melton’s first game in Memphis as a Sixer, which he described as enjoyable despite his new team’s loss.

Yet Friday also marked a return for Sixers assistant Dave Joerger, who was the Grizzles’ head coach from 2013-16 and an assistant there for six seasons before that. It was also Joerger’s first time back coaching at FedEx Forum since undergoing cancer treatment last year. After a quick visit with Melton about two hours before tipoff, Grizzlies general manager Zach Kleiman spent several minutes chatting with Joerger.

» READ MORE: Sixers’ De’Anthony Melton has ‘been waiting to go at’ Grizzlies in return to Memphis

Former Sixer Danny Green, who was on the other side of the draft-night trade that brought Melton to Philly, also paid a pregame visit to the Sixers’ locker room. Green continues to rehab the serious knee injury he suffered in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The Sixers are in the midst of a bizarre portion of the schedule, with one home game sandwiched between two three-game road trips.

That means Tyrese Maxey has not been around his team much while rehabbing a fractured foot at home. When he walked into the locker room before last Monday’s win over the Atlanta Hawks, teammates were ecstatic to see he was out of his walking boot.

“You went from the boot to the off-whites!” said Melton, referencing the color of his sneakers.

Maxey is expected to miss a couple of more weeks with the injury he suffered in the first half of a Nov. 18 win over the Milwaukee Bucks. So when he departed the locker room following his team’s comeback win over the Hawks, he hollered, “See you in a week!”

P.J. Tucker’s lack of scoring — and shooting — remains an outside criticism of the Sixers’ prime free-agent addition. After he did not take a shot in last Sunday’s win at Orlando or Monday’s victory over the Hawks, the veteran forward went 2-of-4 from the floor during Wednesday’s loss at the Cleveland Cavaliers and 1-of-3 against the Grizzlies.

Tucker, however, was the last Sixer on the floor following the shootarounds in Cleveland and Memphis. He worked with Phil Beckner, a private trainer who was hired by the Sixers as a coaching consultant last year who has joined this road trip.

“Little too much up top,” Beckner encouraged Tucker as he fired from the left corner. “Feel the ball. Come on!”

Montrezl Harrell’s attire of choice for last Monday’s game against Atlanta was a T-shirt featuring Brittney Griner.

Harrell does not know the WNBA star personally. But the Sixers’ reserve big man believes it’s important to keep raising awareness about her imprisonment in Russia, where she has been since she was arrested in February for bringing a vape cartridge containing a small amount of cannabis oil into the country. She was sentenced to nine years in prison in August, and her appeal was denied last month.

“We still have to make sure it’s not something that we forget about it,” Harrell said. “I feel like it’s starting to slip [people’s minds] in these later months … but she’s still over there.

“That’s scary, especially when it comes to somebody that left their own country and came over to your country to play the game of basketball to basically put you guys on top. … At the end of the day, it’s not right. It’s just not.”

Harrell joins several NBA players — and others at all levels of basketball — who have called for Griner’s safe return to the United States.