While stars need to star, others have to pick up the slack for Sixers in areas of need

Now is not the time to hear the phrase "The more things change, the more they stay the same." Not when it comes to the Sixers.

But it was apropos on Monday, in a highly meaningful game against the Miami Heat, when the Sixers saw their own self-inflicted nemeses haunt them the way they have much of the season.

Back in the lineup are Joel Embiid and Paul George, who combined have missed 66 of the 75 games the team has played this season. Tyrese Maxey returned a couple of weeks ahead of schedule with his injured pinky, and Kelly Oubre Jr. seems totally healed from his elbow injury. This is the team coach Nick Nurse envisioned when the season started. Sans his fourth guard in Jared McCain, whom the team dealt near the trade deadline, this is the hand Nurse had been dealt.

Monday, he trotted out a starting lineup of Embiid, George, Maxey, VJ Edgecombe and Dominick Barlow. It was the seventh time this season that group has taken the floor to begin a game and the second straight game since all returned. It probably is the lineup he will ride out for the rest of the season and into the playoffs/play-in, with Oubre and Quentin Grimes getting significant minutes off the bench, and Adem Bona and/or Andre Drummond filling in when Embiid rests.

But if Monday is any indication, the lineups and subs and rotations don't make all that much difference if the team doesn't clean up the two areas that have haunted them all year, and that is rebounding and transition defense. The Heat torched the Sixers on the boards by 66-50, including 16 offensive rebounds which led to 19 Miami second chance points. The Heat's up-tempo style produced them 30 fast break points to only 11 for the Sixers. It led to Miami pulling away to a 119-109 victory that dropped the Sixers to 41-34 and left them mired in the seventh spot in the East, a game and a half behind the Toronto Raptors and Atlanta Hawks, who are tied for fifth.

It has been a problem all season for Nurse's squad, no matter which of the 27 different starting lineups and rotations he's had to use this season. So how, or can, it be fixed?

Nurse has decided to start Barlow so that he has some spark coming off the bench in Oubre and Grimes. It's understandable as that is a perfect role on this team for Grimes and Oubre provides the offensive spark needed at the forward spot and will be in the lineup to finish games.

But, simply, now is the time for Barlow to give them more. Sure, it sounds off for a lineup that includes the talent that it does, but it's a necessity. Scoring isn't an issue with the other four players on the floor with him most of the time, so that's not what needed. The occasional follow, maybe a lead out on a fastbreak are the ways he'll get his points, and that's just fine. His defense is fine, nothing that hurts, not much that sticks out, usually. Monday, he made some nice hustle plays, diving on the floor for loose balls, being a nuisance at times defensively. But that needs to be more the norm out of him, especially as the fifth starter.

It's the job description, in a nutshell. With the team deficient in the areas of rebounding and transition defense, Barlow has to take the bull by the horns and be a leader there. The night of a couple rebounds in 20 minutes of play against good opponents can't be had. He can't just be that fifth player on the floor that is biding time until Oubre gets in the game. 

It's a tall task for the fourth-year player who is now on his third team. Asking a 22-year-old to do the things described here may seem a bit daunting. But there is a reason Nurse has started Barlow 57 times this season, and it's not just because of injuries. The 6-foot-9 forward has no problem getting dirty during games, doing the small things that may not show up in a box score. That's all really good and probably the biggest reason he has gotten the playing time he has this season. But this is the time of year where small things have to become bigger ones, where rebounding totals need to be grown, where getting back on defense needs to be a priority, where every 50-50 ball needs to be his.

This certainly isn't to say the success or failures of this Sixers team moving forward are going to be laid at the feet of Barlow. No, that's the obvious duties of Embiid, George and Maxey. But for most of the players who are going to receive the majority of playing time for the remaining seven games and however the postseason plays out, you pretty much know what you are going to get out of them. Barlow is the wild card. And as impressive as he has been all season long with not much expectation entering the season, now needs to be a time for him to become more noticeable to Nurse and his teammates, particularly in the deficient areas that have cost them so dearly this season.

ZONE TROUBLES

Once again, the zone defense that Miami coach Eric Spoelstra is famous for caused trouble for the Sixers on Monday. When the Sixers were able to dribble, penetrate, kick and pass again, it usually led to wide-open looks and some pretty good success. 

However, they seemed to do way too much standing around at times, which led to late heaves in the shot clock. At times, they used reserve Adem Bona to come up and screen for the ball while Miami was in their zone, which seems to be a man-to-man scheme that didn't do much good. Not sure why this is so confusing for the Sixers. An offense against a 1-3-1 zone usually would be better with a two-guard front to nullify the top of the zone, and then work from there. But that wasn't the case. Nor did they employ someone at the foul line much to catch, turn and find mismatches along the baseline. 

There just didn't seem to be much of a concept against a team that plays a really good zone. Sure, the Sixers probably don't practice against zone all that much, especially one as good as Miami's. But it shouldn't have been as bewildering as it appeared for the Sixers.

GEORGE NUMBERS

Paul George has now been back for three games for the Sixers since serving his 25-game suspension for violating the league's anti-drug policy. The Sixers have won two of those games and George has been quite impressive. In his 32-plus minutes a game, George is averaging 24.3 points on 46 percent shooting from the floor, including 40 percent from three and grabbing close to eight rebounds a game.

UPCOMING

The Sixers finish out the three-game road trip when they visit the Washington Wizards on Wednesday. They will have back-to-back home games against the Minnesota Timberwolves and Detroit Pistons on Friday and Saturday. They will then play three straight on the road against San Antonio, Houston and Indiana, before finishing up the regular season at home against the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday, April 12.