Short-handed Sixers frontcourt’s next challenge: Figuring out how to guard Victor Wembanyama

BOSTON — After learning of the right oblique strain that will sideline Joel Embiid through at least Wednesday, Andre Drummond told The Inquirer that he wanted to “wrap him in a bubble sheet and give him a hug, man.”

“I just feel like he can’t get a break,” Drummond added of Embiid’s seemingly never-ending string of injuries.

Embiid’s importance to the 76ers was magnified in Sunday night’s 114-98 loss at the Celtics. The Sixers allowed a career-best 27 points, 17 rebounds, and three blocks to Neemias Queta, who is enjoying a wonderful season for the surprising Celtics but is not exactly regarded as a dominant interior force. The Sixers were blasted in the rebounding category, 59-37, including surrendering 19 offensive boards that Boston turned into 30 second-chance points.

» READ MORE: Joel Embiid out at least three games with right oblique strain

And those harrowing numbers come one game before Tuesday’s home matchup against Victor Wembanyama, the 7-foot-4 NBA MVP contender, and the 43-17 San Antonio Spurs.

“It was frustrating for me,” Drummond said of Sunday’s sharp rebounding discrepancy, “because, like, I see them and I’m like, ‘[Expletive], I’m a little too close to the rim’ and it’s bouncing over my head. It’s one of those annoying games where you see it, and it’s just out of reach. …

“It just felt like everything we did, it just didn’t work.”

Embiid, in a clear attempt to protect his knees by limiting jumping, is not the rebounder or defensive anchor he once was. Yet he flashed an intimidating presence while averaging 30 points, eight rebounds, 4.5 assists, and one block during a 20-game, month-plus stretch before these latest injuries to his oblique, shin, and knee.

In Embiid’s absence Sunday, Nurse again turned to the center pecking order of starting Drummond, who does not play when Embiid is healthy, and Adem Bona, who has typically been the backup whether Embiid plays or not.

Questions about rebounding have swirled around this Sixers roster, which lacked a traditional power forward, since media day more than five months ago. It was an emphasis for coach Nick Nurse coming out of the All-Star break after the Sixers ranked 26th out of 30 NBA teams in defensive rebounding (31.1) during their first 54 games.

And Nurse said it was one of the keys to Sunday’s matchup at TD Garden, against a 40-20 Celtics team that exited the night ranked sixth in the league in overall rebounding (46.1 per game) and offensive boards (12.8 per game).

Nurse lamented that the Sixers (33-27) did not make enough shots — they went 39.8% from the floor, including 12 of 34 from All-Star point guard Tyrese Maxey — to control the boards. The Celtics, meanwhile, attempted 49 three-pointers, which often caused long and “funny” rebounds, Maxey said.

» READ MORE: Tyrese Maxey’s shooting was questioned entering the NBA draft. Now, he holds the Sixers’ three-point record.

“Those are tough ones,” Maxey added. “ … If you’re not challenging [the shooter], we’ve got to try to come back and grab some of those. I got to run some of those down.”

But Queta, the fifth-year center averaging 9.8 points and 8.2 rebounds per game entering Sunday, was a beast inside. He totaled 16 points and 12 rebounds in the first half, earning a standing ovation from the home crowd when he checked out of the game in the second quarter.

Drummond, who was once off to a resurgent start but still has not looked the same physically since a late-November knee injury, said he was trying to “blitz” to get the ball out of the Celtics guards’ hands but struggled to move defensively.

Bona provided an energetic initial lift, but then picked up two fouls and never recaptured momentum. Nurse did not opt to go with smaller lineups, with either Dominick Barlow or Jabari Walker at center. Queta’s outing also arrived eight days after the non-Embiid Sixers allowed 37-year-old DeAndre Jordan, who had not played since Oct. 29, to amass 15 rebounds in the New Orleans victory over the Sixers.

“[The Celtics] made the right plays by giving [Queta] the ball,” Drummond said from his locker after the game, “and he did what he was supposed to do by finishing shots. He was around the rim getting offensive rebounds. I try to block him out, [and] those weird bounces would just fall in his hands, or it would get tipped to him somehow, some way. …

“[Crummy] that it happened against me, but whatever. It is what it is. He had a good game.”

It is possible that Queta learned some of those rebounding tips from Drummond, who said the two centers have shared a postgame chat after every matchup since the beginning of last season.

Drummond has told Queta that, at the end of each practice, he watches teammates shoot to learn “what type of misses they have” and how to position himself to, in his words, become “one of the best rebounders to play.”

» READ MORE: Inside Sixers: Tyrese Maxey’s history with Anthony Edwards, VJ Edgecombe’s three-point routine, and more

“Use this as momentum and build on it,” Drummond told Queta after Sunday’s game. “You should feel good about yourself. It was a great game. You played well. Do it again.”

Queta’s final touches on his breakout night included blowing past Drummond for a one-handed dunk, before a spin and finish through contact put the Celtics up 106-97 with less than three minutes to play. Queta then corralled two game-sealing putbacks in the final two minutes, playfully shaking his head after the second conversion. The home fans serenaded Queta with “M-V-P” chants multiple times in the fourth quarter.

No disrespect to Queta, but Wembanyama is an actual MVP contender. The Spurs, who are 9-1 in their last 10 games, are an even better rebounding team, entering Monday ranked third in the league with 46.4 per game.

And the Sixers must face that matchup without Embiid. With or without bubble wrap.

“We’re going to have to figure out who to guard [Wenbanyama] with,” Nurse said. “It will probably be a number of guys to take that challenge.”