Sixers vs. Bulls takeaways: Ramifications of trading Andre Drummond; Nic Batum’s solid return in sluggish team effort

CHICAGO — The 76ers are worn down.

Trading away Andre Drummond may haunt them for a while. But at the same time, Nic Batum’s play off the bench provides optimism.

Those three things stood out in the Sixers’ 105-92 loss to the Chicago Bulls Saturday night at the United Center.

This matchup was the final game of a tough four-game road trip without reigning MVP Joel Embiid. The last three games were played over four nights, with Saturday’s matchup being the second game of a back-to-back.

The Sixers (22-10) shot 39.1% from the field — including going 9-for-38 on three-pointers. And they experienced shooting woes from the start, shooting 28.6% in the first quarter.

“I think you saw certainly offensively we needed to shoot it better,” said coach Nick Nurse, “and just execute better. I think you saw the sluggish part was a lot of standing around and non-cutting and things like that and execution.”

He gave the Bulls (15-19) credit for fighting through a lot of his team’s set pieces, early on.

But ….

“I thought we started shooting too much from the perimeter early,” he added. “It’s never a good idea to try to jump shoot your way to a win on the road, usually, right? And we started 1-for-10 from three (in the first quarter). So that didn’t help.”

» READ MORE: Sixers grades: Mediocrity across the board in loss to Bulls

Nor did it help that the Sixers had no one available remotely capable of guarding Drummond.

The 6-foot-11, 289-pounder had a 79-pound advantage on Paul Reed, who started at center in place of Embiid on the road trip. Drummond is 58 pounds heavier than Mo Bamba, the Sixers’ other available center.

So it wasn’t surprising that he finished with 15 points and 23 rebounds. He’s averaging 15.3 points and 21.3 rebounds while starting the last three games for injured Bulls center Nik Vučević (strained left groin).

Drummond, a two-time All-Star, is the league’s best backup center. And the Sixers had him until packaging him along with Ben Simmons and Seth Curry to the Brooklyn Nets for James Harden on Feb.10, 2022.

Less than two years later, Harden is a Los Angeles Clipper and the Sixers are still in the market for a backup big.

Batum was on a minutes restriction after being sidelined the past three games with a right hamstring strain. But he was productive in his 19 minutes, 8 seconds of action. Batum had nine points while making 3 of 5 three-point attempts along with three rebounds and two assists.

“Tonight I feel great,” he said of his hamstring. “We lost the game obviously, but I’m just trying to ease into the game and get back into rhythm.”