Jan 31, 2026; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid (21) dribbles the ball against New Orleans Pelicans center Yves Missi (21) during the fourth quarter at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
PHILADELPHIA -- With the throwback jerseys, the retro court and former executives and players consuming the Xfinity Mobile Arena Saturday night, it wasn't hard to try and find parallels between two teams: the 2000-01 Sixers being honored, and the current team, 25 years later.
What stuck out most of all was the challenge of trying to find the right fit of players to blend together, much like general manager Billy King had to do at the turn of the century with the team, coach Nick Nurse has to do now.
Twenty five years ago, King was challenged with finding the right pieces with which to surround star guard Allen Iverson. He and head coach Larry Brown did a masterful job in gathering defenders. shot blockers and utility players who would superbly fill roles.
A SIX FOOT GUARD FROM GEORGETOWN. pic.twitter.com/aQ1t9sR4zn
Guys like George Lynch, Eric Snow, Theo Ratliff, Dikembe Mutombo and Aaron McKie. They all filled those roles perfectly, leading to a spot in the NBA Finals, a place the organization hadn't been since 1983 and hasn't been since.
With the news early Saturday that forward Paul George was suspended by the NBA for 25 games due to violating the league's anti-drug policy, Nurse now has to find the pieces that will best fit around Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey until George is allowed back when the team has 10 games left in the season.
The coach threw everything out on the floor Saturday against the New Orleans Pelicans, using nine players in the first quarter alone, and 10 for the game. And though no definitive conclusion was reached on who is going to play when and where during George's absence, the team did pull out a 124-114 win, riding Embiid's season-high 40 points.
"I did like a lot of the stuff we did," said Nurse, whose team improved to 27-21 and now embarks on a five-game, west coast trip. "Again, it's got to be by committee by who we're playing, what the matchups are. I'd like to get all those guys in for a little bit just to keep the energy up."
The slack left by George's absence was picked up Saturday by the obvious candidates as Kelly Oubre, Jr. collected 19 points and 10 rebounds, Tyrese Maxey went for 18 points and eight assists and rookie VJ Edgecombe 15 points and five assists. And of the five reserves who saw action, Jared McCain was the leader with 12 points in 16 minutes.
"First of all, we're staying with Paul, we appreciate him as a team," said Maxey. "We're going to rally behind him, make sure he's good and gets whatever he needs. As far as who is going to step up, I think Kelly. You saw Kelly play good tonight. I think VJ, to get back into that role that he was in at the beginning of the season and being even more aggressive than he already is. Jared, Quinten (Grimes), Trendon (Watford). All those guys played well tonight, and we have Justin (Edwards) as well. We have some guys that we can use. (Dominick) Barlow steps into the starting lineup and we know he can do it. He's been doing it all year and we appreciate that."
It was a bit of a fire drill for Nurse, mixing and matching and trying to not only find his comfort lineup, but also the best matchup against the Pelicans, specifically against forward Zion Williamson, who the Sixers limited to 11 points on just two field goals in 29 minutes.
"We did a good job when we had a pretty long list of things we wanted to do against him and we executed most of them really well," Nurse said. "It kind of starts with transition. We didn't get too much of them bringing the ball at us. Again, Barlow did a good job of fighting him, Jabari (Walker) did, Watford did, Kelly did, (Adem) Bona had him for a while. So, it's kind of one of those things where you throw a bunch of guys at him and you throw a pretty extensive schemes list at him, too. We were able to get it done most of the night."
It appears it's going to be a chess match most nights for the coach without the services of George. And he moved his pieces around against New Orleans like a mad scientist. His one constant, again, was Embiid, who he played for 39 minutes and hauled in 11 rebounds.
FORTY. 🗣️
40 PTS | 11 REB | 2 BLK @cryptocom pic.twitter.com/eKjYqJQcD4
"It's been a long road, so that right there talks about the amount of work," said Nurse of Embiid coming back from injury. "There's so much involved in it. There's stretching and weight training and testing, playing. There's so much involved.
"I think the biggest thing is, and I know that's a really big minute night for him. Piling some of these heavier minutes nights up more consistently is obviously going to get the conditioning aspect of it. It's good to see that he's tolerating it for the most part. That's excellent. There's tons of little things that need to be done all the time to keep that going in a positive direction. He certainly looks like he's moving better all the time. I think he would say he's still a ways from moving as good as he would like to."
But as long as Embiid keeps improving his health, dominating games and making his teammates better, it just may make Nurse's job a bit easier. Much like Iverson did for King and Brown back in the day.
"It's unfortunate for him and for us, but we are going to hold down the fort until we get him back," Embiid said of George's suspension after his seventh 30-plus point performance in the month of January. "You can't replace (him). He does everything for us. Probably our best perimeter defender. Offensively he can play so many roles, knock down shots, post up, create, playmaking. It's going to be tough moving forward, but we just got to try.
"It's been the same mentality since the beginning of the season -- next man up. You can't sit there and cry about it. A player as good as Paul George you just have to keep competing and try and win games."
While he was just one when the Sixers made that magical run to the Finals 25 years ago, Maxey is more than appreciative of what that team accomplished and the relationship he's formed with Iverson.
"He calls, I talk to him," said Maxey of Iverson. "I appreciate him. He just wants us to go out there and be fearless. When you've got somebody like that in your corner... I talked about it with Joel. Those are Hall of Famers, MVPs. When they believe in you, your confidence goes through the roof."
