The Philadelphia 76ers started a lineup including Justin Edwards, Dominick Barlow, and Andre Drummond on Tuesday, and even though Edwards and Barlow both played pretty well, fans still witnessed what they feared most all offseason; a team that is outmatched in large part because injuries continue to decimate this roster.
Andre Drummond also tried to square up with Wendell Carter Jr. in perhaps the funniest almost-fight in recent NBA memory. Not exactly a sentence anyone expected to read this year.
Despite that objectively hilarious moment, the Sixers lost the game by 41, raising the question: Is the Sixers' exciting start doomed to crash and burn because of injuries? Is this a sentence you've read before? Does anything have meaning?
Sixers fans just saw what happens when the injuries add up
The first month of this season has been full of pleasant surprises for the Sixers; VJ Edgecombe has shot out to a lead in the ROY race, Trendon Watford has been a nifty free agent pickup, and Kelly Oubre was playing his best basketball in years.
Now every one of those guys is injured; Oubre and Watford are out for at least a few weeks and Edgecombe is day-to-day. It's not fun!
It's even less fun because there's no clear solution. Daryl Morey found some gems and those guys were producing. The Sixers were winning games without Joel Embiid and Paul George, a reality fans had grown accustomed to. This team was lovable, but there's obviously a point where injuries add up, and we've officially reached that point.
Tyrese Maxey is having an MVP-level start to the season, but he's just one man. When his supporting cast is a bunch of vet minimum-caliber guys, there's only so much he can do. The nightmare scenario for Sixers fans is that Maxey continues to play like a No. 1 option, and the rest of the team continues to be sidelined with injuries, nullifying a spectacular season from #0.