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Before the Philadelphia 76ers took on the Indiana Pacers on March 6, Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Tobias Harris and P.J. Tucker would miss the game due to injuries.
However, Pompey then reported that the two of them were slated to play in the game after that against the Minnesota Timberwolves, barring any setbacks.
With those two out, the Sixers elected to start De’Anthony Melton and Jalen McDaniels next to Joel Embiid, James Harden and Tyrese Maxey. Without those two, the Sixers pulled off the win, beating the Pacers 147-143.
More encouraging, the injuries the two of them suffered when the Sixers played the Milwaukee Bucks on March 4 are evidently not long-term serious injuries since all indications are they plan to return.
The Sixers have 20 games left and are two games in back of the Boston Celtics for the No. 2 seed and four games in back of the Milwaukee Bucks, so they will need everyone healthy if they hope to catch their Eastern Conference rivals.
Doc Rivers & P.J. Tucker’s Updates on Injuries
After the Sixers beat the Bucks, Sixers head coach Doc Rivers and Tucker himself provided updates on Harris’ and Tucker’s health.
When asked about them, Rivers called ahead of time that both would miss their next game against the Pacers
“I have no idea,” Rivers said, per Ky Carlin of SixersWire. “My guess, if I was a guessing man, yes, just watching them in the locker room, but we have 48 hours. So, you know, these guys are different.”
Tucker admitted that the back spasms that took him out of the game were something he had been dealing with for some time.
“I’ve been fighting back spasms the last two days, and today (Saturday) just went crazy,” Tucker said, according to Carlin. “I couldn’t run. I couldn’t jump. So I just went to the back, try to get it better. I couldn’t get better.”
Before missing the game against the Pacers, Tucker had played in every Sixers game this season. Harris, on the other hand, had missed two games for the Sixers this season before missing the game against the Pacers.
Harris’ Thoughts on Fit Next to Embiid & Harden
In an interview with SixersWire, Harris gave his candid thoughts on what it’s like to play next to ball-dominant players like Embiid and Harden.
“With the team that we have, the talent that we have, there’s just not that many—there’s less opportunities,” Harris told SixersWire. “The ball is in James’ hands, Joel’s hands for the majority part of the game. So we got to figure out ways to find a rhythm, find a balance for me, personally. So sometimes that is just catch-and-shooting. That’s been an adjustment for me like I’ve said from the beginning, but it’s something I’m continuing to learn and game by game just continue to try to monitor and find out. Every game is a different opportunity for me to try to expand on it and grow with it, really.”
Harris also told the outlet that adjusting to them has helped him grow as a player:
“So for me, it’s like figuring out ways—it’s another growth of my game. My whole career, I’ve shot 3s, but they were in rhythm and stuff and now it’s shooting 3s like last-second shot clock 3s, like kind of catching the ball out of nowhere, boom, like raise it up and letting it fly. So I think that’s something that I just kind of embrace and say, ‘Hey, this is your role right now. You just have to make it make the best of it, and figure out ways to be productive in it.’”
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