CAMDEN, N.J. — Nick Nurse was out of breath finishing his injury updates Sunday afternoon at the 76ers practice facility in Camden. He’s hoping that after a brief mirage of injury respite, the team isn’t out of ideas in how to cope with the latest rash of absences. The new challenge tackled in practice Sunday is playing without Jared McCain after the rookie guard was ruled out indefinitely with a tear in the meniscus of his left knee that will require surgery. This happened while Kyle Lowry (back spasms) and Caleb Martin (shoulder) remain day-to-day, and with Nurse unable to formally rule out Joel Embiid (sinus fracture) for Monday’s game in Charlotte, though an evaluation later Sunday has him as officially out. “We can’t seem to clear the runway and get going,” Nurse said. “And when we do, the snow piles up again, it seems like.” The 76ers have a light week, with Monday’s Charlotte trip leading to three days off before a back-to-back at home against the Hornets Friday and in Cleveland Saturday. They’ll need that time to figure out how to replace the 15.3 points and immeasurable energy per game that McCain has supplied. There’s a psychological aspect to keeping the team together. They 76ers are 7-16, with their Big 3 of Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George having played together just three times, mostly because Embiid has only played six games. Nurse admitted that the slew of injuries has caused him to question how hard the team is pushing in practice, even as they struggle to forge connections among a mostly new roster. The McCain news, in particular, brought shock. McCain hit his head on the court Friday night and passed concussion protocol to return against the Pacers. Completely unrelated, he reported knee pain Saturday, which may or may not stem from the fall or even from the Indiana game, in which the tear was detected. “When the Jared news comes rolling across yesterday, it’s almost like you’ve got to clear some fog out of your head to even comprehend that this is now the news,” Nurse admitted. “I was definitely shocked. I think a lot of people were,” Martin said. “You just feel for him because he’s playing at such a high level and he’s such a good kid. You just want nothing but good things to happen to him. I really do hate it.” Tactically, McCain’s role has grown beyond any reasonable expectations 23 games into his NBA career. The 16th overall pick is logging 25.7 minutes per game and has been one of the best shooters (38.3 percent from 3-point range) on a team near the bottom in the league in that category. Nurse broke down a two-fold replacement plan, needing to fill McCain’s backup point guard role and the shooting void. Reggie Jackson and Kyle Lowry are candidates for the former. The latter might bring Eric Gordon, who hasn’t played in the last six games and was awful over his first 16 outings (4.8 points in 16.5 minutes, shooting 32.5 percent from the field and 23.8 percent from 3) back into the fold. “I think always the first step is of somebody that’s out of the rotation, what are they doing to try to get themselves back in?,” Nurse said. “And Eric came in here yesterday, had a great workout. He’s trying to get himself back in there. He’s trying to stay ready and be ready to go. We did look at some of that at practice today. “He’s had a good few days personally and a good day today with the team. Those are positive signs. I would say he’s probably one of the candidates to come in there and fill that position.” There’s also replacing McCain’s infectious energy. Martin said that the rookie still brought that same presence Sunday morning, despite being a little down. But his on-court spark will fall to others. “I think definitely it is going to be hard,” forward Guerschon Yabusele said. “I think Jared is one of a kind. A kid like him, a lot of energy, no fear, being able to bring so many good things for us on offense. I think it’s going to be hard, but still, we have a lot of guys here. Everybody is going to be ready to have this chance.” As for the team, it’s more of the same, even if the particular faces absent seem to be constantly in flux. “We’ll just keep going here,” Nurse said. “A lot of it is, you’ve got to do what you can today, which is what we did. Chances are it changes tomorrow, hopefully for a positive. If not, then we’ve got to adjust again.” • • • The roster in-and-out takes a toll, which Martin knows well. The wing, who practiced to the side, has a tendency to play through pain, which this year has included a back ailment and a shoulder impingement. Seeing that Martin hasn’t been playing quite the way he’s capable, Nurse has had to rein him in to heal. Martin drew the line Sunday connecting his willingness to play banged up with what has transpired around him on the injury front. “I feel like I played through a lot of things, sometimes to a fault, to where I never want to put myself in position to not better the team,” he said. “Just having conversations with the team and the staff, they want me to be at a place to where they know who I am and what I can be and what I typically do.” Martin remains out but is trying to “stack up good days.” He has averaged 8.7 points in his first 20 games as a 76er, his lowest total since 2020-21. He’s shooting 40.5 percent from the field and 29.4 from 3. Some of that is health. Some is that he hasn’t gotten much chance to play the three-and-D spacer role envisioned around the oft-injured stars. Nurse Friday offered a vote of confidence that Martin can be more than what he’s been, if healthy and in better situations. Martin is heartened by that backing. “Anybody who knows me, I’m an in-my-own-head type of guy,” he said. “I’m my toughest critic. So I really am appreciative that he sees that in me and he knows that about me, and I feel like my teammates know that about me.”