CAMDEN, N.J. \u2014 The light at the end of the 76ers\u2019 lengthy spring injury tunnel is growing brighter.<\/p>\n
Kelly Oubre Jr. declared himself ready to play Saturday night in Charlotte after nine games out with a left elbow ligament strain, while Tyrese Maxey is intensifying his practice with a reevaluation of his right pinkie tendon injury looming in the next few days.<\/p>\n
With Paul George returning from his 25-game suspension on Wednesday and Joel Embiid getting back after 13 games out with a right oblique strain, the 76ers could be getting fully healthy as the season ticks to nine games remaining.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited,\u201d Oubre said Friday at a practice at the team\u2019s facility. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a good thing going here, and I\u2019m just trying to help push this momentum forward into the postseason.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oubre, who returned to full participation at Wednesday\u2019s shootaround, declared himself fit before coach Nick Nurse could weigh in on the matter. The fact that it\u2019s Charlotte, where he spent two seasons, may have a little something to do with it, not that he wouldn\u2019t be eager to return anywhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s felt really good,\u201d Oubre said. A \u201clot of this thing that I\u2019ve been dealing with has just been inflammation and pain management. And I told the training staff, once I can move my elbow, once I\u2019m able to dribble the ball, shoot the ball, kind of do what I can without any discomfort, I want to play basketball. So I feel ready to play basketball. \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019m breaking news or not, but I don\u2019t care. I\u2019m playing basketball tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nurse said he\u2019s \u201cpretty sure\u201d Oubre will get cleared for the game between the seventh- and ninth-place teams in the East separated by one game. Nurse said the procedure of figuring out how to reintegrate Oubre is underway. It\u2019s certainly one Nurse has gotten used to on other fronts.<\/p>\n
Maxey has missed 11 games since getting hurt March 7 in Atlanta. He\u2019s due to be reevaluated some time this weekend or early next week.<\/p>\n
Maxey got a new splint. He\u2019s unsure if he\u2019ll play with it or need to graduate from it before being cleared.<\/p>\n
He made certain that the only thing holding him back is the fact that it\u2019s his shooting hand: He played through a similar issue last year that led to shooting struggles and convinced him to take the time this year to let it heal. Had it been on his off hand, it would be a matter of tape it and forget it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year, I thought we were in a good spot as far as, we\u2019re still in playoff contention, play-in contention, and it\u2019s like, we can hold down the fort,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have a team that\u2019s really done a good job of just maintaining all season, so being able to have this time off and just rehab and do the thing that\u2019s let the pinky get better, it\u2019s on my shooting hand, that\u2019s the main reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
Embiid returned for 35 points in 28 minutes, though he\u2019s still experiencing discomfort in his side, and George scored 28 points in his return Wednesday for a 157-137 win over the Chicago Bulls. This week\u2019s trip, against the ninth-placed Hornets and 10th-place Miami Heat, will be a more difficult proposition, with playoff implications for three teams all endeavoring to get there.<\/p>\n
The impending returns pose the question of how to preserve what worked in the absence of the team\u2019s stars and integrate it to their presence. VJ Edgecombe\u2019s outing on Wednesday, scoring 22 points on 7-for-9 shooting, is the kind of concentrated contribution Nurse wants to see.<\/p>\n
Quentin Grimes has said the right things about maintaining aggression.<\/p>\n
Maxey said he and Edgecombe talked Friday about him staying aggressive on and off the ball, an evergreen conversation between the guards, Maxey particularly cheerleading Edgecombe to push the issue via his burgeoning midrange game.<\/p>\n
With the scoring surge of Justin Edwards, strong reserve point guard play from Cameron Payne and consistent contributions from Dominick Barlow and Adem Bona, Nurse has the pieces of a rotation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I get worried about in these situations with so many guys coming back is, we had a few weeks with a group, and, yeah, they got kicked around a couple times, but they kind of got it together and got a rhythm with what they were doing together,\u201d Nurse said. \u201cAnd then you add things that can disrupt the rhythm really quickly. But adding Joel and Paul, those guys are pretty experienced. So I think that that helps that integration happen fast, and obviously did the other night.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we can, at this point, get healthy at the right time, and all try to get on the court as soon as possible,\u201d Maxey said. \u201cSo it\u2019s really been good to see just Joel out there, PG out there. VJ, Justin, Kelly\u2019s been trying to work his way back in. I\u2019m just ready to get back out there with my guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oubre pointed to the late-January stretch, before George\u2019s suspension and with Embiid playing in 20 of 25 games, as showing what this team can do. Maxey underscored that availability is part of the ability. Every team in the NBA has its ideal state, but the one that prevails in the postseason is the one that has the bodies physically present.<\/p>\n
The hope, left unsaid in so many words, is for the 76ers to unearth one of those proficient stretches with Embiid, George, Maxey and the rest to see where it may take them in April.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe finally are where everybody\u2019s healthy or healthy enough,\u201d Oubre said, \u201cand I feel like we\u2019re ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAMDEN, N.J. \u2014 The light at the end of the 76ers\u2019 lengthy spring injury tunnel is growing brighter.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,9688,85,279596],"class_list":["post-568663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-dtd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}