PHILADELPHIA — By Tuesday afternoon, the first score of the day that the 76ers would lose read 9-8. That is, nine of their 17 rostered players found spots on the injury report. Eight were spared. It led to an evening in which the 76ers scratched Tyrese Maxey (left hand sprain), Caleb Martin (right groin soreness) and Paul George (right ankle soreness). With Justin Edwards the only one of the early injured who wound up healthy enough to play, that left nine available players for a visit from Western Conference leader Oklahoma City and a pre-game injury graphic on the Wells Fargo Center that was booed by the sparse crowd in attendance. Edwards (left ankle sprain) and Maxey were both added in the afternoon after participating in shootaround. Edwards, the Imhotep Charter product, was good to go. George, who has dealt with issues in his left knee and tightness in his left groin before adding the ankle to his bingo card, was listed as probable. Martin had been questionable. The slew of late withdrawals left the 76ers fielding their 24th different starting five of the season, the murderer’s row of Reggie Jackson, Eric Gordon, Kelly Oubre, Ricky Council and Guerschon Yabusele, against the 32-6 Thunder. It’s the first start of the season for Jackson and Council, the fourth for Gordon. Maxey hit his hand in Sunday’s loss in Orlando. Nick Nurse had expected him to come out of the game at some point, but he played on, though it’s bothered Maxey since. “Sometimes after those things, after the game, and after a night of sleep or whatever, the next day they wake up feeling a little different,” Nurse said. “It’s not healed, and he’s still feeling some stuff there.” Farcical as the nine-man 76ers seemed – the Thunder led by 16 after one quarter, shooting 70 percent from the field – it made some basketball sense. It also translated into a 118-102 Sixers loss. But the team has two back-to-backs this week, with the New York Knicks coming to South Philly Wednesday for a rematch of their playoff series. The Sixers travel to Indiana Saturday and Milwaukee Sunday. Oklahoma City may be the least winnable of the four games, and it’s the only cross-conference clash of the bunch. On the bright side, Joel Embiid (left foot sprain) remains day-to-day, though he missed his fifth straight game. “Day to day, man,” Nurse said. “Hopefully tomorrow is a good day.” Andre Drummond (left toe sprain, day-to-day) and KJ Martin (left foot stress reaction, no timetable) resumed on-court work. • • • Guy No. 9 on the roster was Pete Nance, signed again on Tuesday to a two-way contract. The 6-11 24-year-old has hit one 3-pointer in three minutes with the club. He scored 28 points in his one game with the Blue Coats. The North Carolina grad was originally signed to a two-way deal on Dec. 3, then was waived last week. • • • Among the myriad discontinuities Nurse is trying to work through, the backcourt seems a particular sticking point. Maxey was always going to be the lead ballhandler for the first unit. The Sixers figured someone, maybe Kyle Lowry or Jackson, would emerge to lead the second unit. It ended up being Jared McCain, before his season-ending knee injury, which put the Sixers behind where they began. Now Nurse is throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks, when there’s anyone healthy enough to be thrown. Perversely, Tuesday’s chance to see Jackson, Council and Edwards get minutes helped in some ways. “I’m really trying to work through it,” Nurse said last Friday before a game against New Orleans. “I think we were working toward Jared just for multiple reasons, because we wanted to keep him on the floor. We wanted to make sure his minutes were up there. And that was one way to do it … to give him some of those backup minutes.” The 76ers’ most used five-man unit this season – George, Oubre, Yabusele, Caleb Martin and Maxey – has played together for a grand total of 72 minutes. The ostensible starting lineup in preseason – that group with Embiid substituted for Yabusele – has played 54 minutes together. There’s plenty of good in there. Many of their most productive three- and five-man combinations involved the players you’d expect, like Maxey, Yabusele and George. But the second units are faltering. Drummond and Lowry have been two of the team’s worst players on plus-minus, which is dragging those units down. There have been glimmers of hope; Jackson, for instance, has played very well with the two Martins, while combinations with Lowry and Caleb Martin have tended to struggle. No one has really stepped up into the role, in part because roles are so often changing. Jeff Dowtin has lit it up in the G League, where he’s averaging 26.6 points per game, but it hasn’t translated up I-95 yet. One surprisingly good combination is Jackson and Lowry, with a high plus/minus rating in 59 minutes on the court together, despite their seeming overlap as ball-dominant guards. Lowry’s hip injury has stifled chances to build on that, and Jackson is only usable, Nurse said, in short bursts.