CAMDEN, N.J. — In deference to a focus on the moment, Nick Nurse didn’t evince much apprehension last week when an illness to Tyrese Maxey meant his 76ers would have to play without their MVP candidate guard. After two solid performances without him, Nurse feels safer reflecting on that concern with Maxey back on the practice court. “My fears were really high going into those games, but I thought we handled it very, very well,” Nurse said Wednesday at 76ers practice. “I thought we played pretty good basketball. Obviously, miss him and miss all that he brings.” With Maxey sidelined, the 76ers beat Indiana last Friday behind 39 points from Joel Embiid, then nearly escaped Atlanta with a win Sunday thanks to 35 from Paul George. The two stars stepping up in the absence of the third was heartening to Nurse. It’s even more so with Maxey able to mix back in. Maxey reported feeling, “way better” after practice. Nurse characterized him as looking like he’d been off for a few days, getting in extra work Tuesday to get back up to speed. The 76ers end their second four-day break in as many weeks with a back-to-back Friday and Saturday, visiting newly crowned NBA Cup champ New York on Friday, then hosting Dallas and No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg on Saturday night. Nurse saw many of the things he needed to with Maxey, who leads the league at 39.9 minutes per game and is third in scoring at 31.5 ppg, sidelined. Embiid had his most explosive game in a year Friday, then bounced back two days later to contribute in Atlanta. George, who has been steady defensively, pushed the issue with the ball more, looking like a more dynamic scorer than he did much of last year, his first season with the club. The hope is those attributes carry over. Also in that category is VJ Edgecombe’s aggression. The third overall pick scored 34 points in the season opener, had two 20-point outings in his next 19 games, then supplied 22 points against Indiana and 26 in Atlanta. “That’s what we want him to be, no matter who’s on the court: aggressive at all times,” Maxey said. “I think he was aggressive early in the year like that, and then kind of slowed down a little bit. But I think he’s picking it back up, and maybe just needed a little break. It’s hard, like we talked about, but he’s playing well, playing extremely well.” Maxey, watching from home, was happy with the level of competition from the team. That wasn’t always the case in the injury-mired 2024-25 season, when Embiid, George and Maxey missed copious time. Maxey set a preseason intention of the team looking more consistent night to night in ways that exceeded the on-court personnel. The first time he wasn’t out there to personally proctor that message went well, in his eyes. “I think the biggest thing that I took from is we could be really good,” Maxey said. “It’s possible. We have those opportunities, we have those chances. We’ve just got to keep coming together, keep doing a good job of building every single day and staying healthy.” • • • Trendon Watford (left adductor strain) and Kelly Oubre Jr. (left knee sprain) have both progressed to individual on-court workouts. Their next evaluation dates are too be determined. Watford missed three games with a preseason hamstring strain in the same leg but that he says is unrelated. He left a Nov. 25 loss to Orlando after the leg gave out on the way up the court. He was initially worried that it might be worse, and it’s frustrating that he had developed a rhythm that included the Nov. 8 triple-double against Toronto in a run of 14 straight games. “It’s hard, just because you want to be out there,” he said. “I feel like I had a pretty good groove going while I was playing, sort of stringing them together a little bit. And it’s unfortunate what happened, but it could always be worse.” Watford is averaging 8.9 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 20.4 regular-season games. His positional flexibility is both an asset but makes his absence that much more frustrating, for the different roles he could take around George, Embiid et al. Oubre sprained his knee Nov. 14 against Detroit. He’s averaging 16.8 points and 5.1 rebounds in his first 112 games of the season. Nurse is encouraged that they’re progressing. “When you see them around and shooting and on the court and doing stuff, you know they’re getting closer,” he said. “That’s a lot better than when you don’t see them on the court and it’s a ways away. So I’m hoping it’s going to speed up here.” • • • It’s been a rough go lately for Justin Edwards. The Philly native is 0-for-10 from the field in his last two games over 28 total minutes. He’s scored 21 points in his last seven outings, a span of 110 minutes. That unevenness led to a trip for him and Adem Bona in Delaware on Tuesday night. Edwards got his stroke back, scoring 37 points to go with four assists and six steals on his 22nd birthday. Bona, who hasn’t played in three games with Embiid back, logged 12 points and four rebounds in 32 minutes. “I think that was a great opportunity, both of them went down there and embraced it and played great,” Nurse said. “I told them both, do your thing. Play hard. Play to your strengths. And they both went down there and I thought played really great. And it was great to see, and it was good to see them both have some fun.” Edwards is shooting 32.9 percent from 3-point range after a 36.3 percent figure last year. Nurse reiterated both his confidence in the second-year man out of Kentucky and the fact that he’s likely going to need both guys at some point in the coming back-to-back. ...read more read less