NEW ORLEANS — The 76ers didn’t have it on this night.
Their standouts struggled to make shots. The Sixers also struggled to match the New Orleans Pelicans’ intensity and to avoid untimely turnovers. That combination led to 101-94 setback to the undermanned Pelicans Friday night at Smoothie King Center.
The loss dropped the Sixers to 35-16 and a game behind the first-place Brooklyn Nets atop the Eastern Conference standings. Philly will look to have a better effort Saturday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Chesapeake Energy Arena.
Saturday’s game in OKC is a makeup contest for a game that was originally scheduled on Jan. 17, but was postponed because the Sixers didn’t have enough available players due to contact tracing.
It won’t be hard for the Sixers to play better than they did Friday night.
They shot 41.1%, were outscored 66-34 in the paint, and committed 19 turnovers. Oh, and they didn’t have any answers for Zion Williamson.
The second-year point forward finished with a game-high 37 points, a career-high 15 rebounds, and eight assists. Unfortunately for the Sixers, their standout players were unable to match Williamson’s play.
Joel Embiid had 14 points and nine rebounds making just 5 of 16 shots. Tobias Harris finished with a team-high 23 points on 7-for-16 shooting. He made 5 of 14 shots through three quarters. And Seth Curry was held scoreless for the third time this season. The shooting guard missed all seven of his shots, including two 3-pointers.
Doc Rivers wouldn’t say during pregame accessibility if Embiid would play on Saturday against the Thunder.
“I have talked about it,” Rivers said, “but there’s basically no plan. That’s basically what we’ve done this year. Finding out stuff doesn’t work in a lot of cases. What if a guy plays 20 minutes and he plays great? Should we sit him because we have that plan already?
“So we typically wait till after the game [the night before] to make that decision.”
Against the Pelicans (23-29), Embiid played 31 minutes, 16 seconds.
New Orleans welcomed back Brandon Ingram (17 points) and rookie Kira Lewis Jr. (two).
Ingram missed the previous five games with right toe inflammation. Lewis missed the past three with a strained calf.
The Pelicans, however, were without Josh Hart, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Lonzo Ball.
Hart had surgery on his right thumb. It marked the fifth straight game the former Villanova standout has missed. Alexander-Walker missed his third straight game with a left high ankle sprain. And Ball was sidelined with a left hip flexor soreness.
Ball’s absence comes after the point guard had missed seven games, from March 21 to April 2, with a right hip flexor strain. He came back to play in three games before missing Friday’s contest.
“I don’t think they saw any structural damage, so that’s good,” Pelicans coach Stan Van Gundy said when asked if there’s concern with Ball suffering these injuries.
“I know it’s frustrating for Lonzo to be back for such a short period of time and be sidelined, again. It’s frustrating for us. You never like to lose players.”
The injuries have left the Pelicans without continuity since beating the Boston Celtics, 115-109, at TD Garden on March 29. Since then, they had lost four of five games before facing the Sixers.
The Pelicans led, 23-22, after one quarter as the Sixers made just 36.8% of their shots. Embiid was one of the few bright spots with 10 points and four rebounds in the quarter.
Harris (1 for 5), Curry (0 for 1), and Furkan Korkmaz (0 for 2) combined to shoot 1 for 8.
The Sixers’ shooting woes continued as Curry missed all three of his second-quarter shots. Harris went 2 for 6 and Embiid missed three of his four attempts. But the Pelicans also struggled from the field and the teams went into the locker room tied at 50.
The Pelicans went on to extend their lead to 15 points (86-71) on Williamson’s foul shots with 9:49 remaining.
The Sixers closed the gap to six points on Harris’ jumper with 1:43 left, but that was as close as they would get.
