Doc Rivers understands Sixers’ challenge to win without Joel Embiid: ‘It’s hard. It really is.’

MILWAUKEE — When Doc Rivers arrived as the 76ers’ coach in 2020, he immediately noticed their poor record while playing without Joel Embiid.

Considering the superstar center’s already significant health problems, Rivers made it a priority to solve that puzzle. And he largely achieved that goal, as the Sixers went 11-5 during the regular season (and 2-0 during the playoffs) last season without the eventual NBA Most Valuable Player.

So Rivers can understand the challenge now facing first-year Sixers coach Nick Nurse, who has not immediately replicated the same success despite his reputation as a creative tactician.

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Thursday’s 114-105 loss to the Bucks — the team Rivers now coaches — dropped the Sixers to 10-22 without Embiid this season, prompting their tumble from third place to seventh in the competitive Eastern Conference standings. Yet All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey believes Thursday’s performance — when the Sixers’ aggressive style yielded a 10-point fourth-quarter lead, on the road against a Milwaukee team now in second place in the East, before they faltered down the stretch — was another step toward finding their identity without their superstar still recovering from knee surgery.

“I think we’re pretty close,” said Maxey, who scored 30 points Thursday. “That game, we played 3½ really good quarters. … Coach Nurse and [the staff], they’re really implementing a good system for when the big fella’s out. And I think the guys are buying into it.”

Nurse is known to experiment with rosters and schemes. A matchup against the Bucks reminded that he is credited with devising the build-a-wall blueprint against bulldozing two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. Nurse also threw out a box-and-1 defense against the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals. And he turned a roster full of like-size Toronto Raptors into a playoff team, pushing the Sixers to six games two seasons ago.

“He’s very adaptive at making decisions on the fly and figuring things out,” said veteran guard Kyle Lowry, who has reunited with Nurse in Philly after playing for him in Toronto, “which is why he’s one of the best coaches out there.”

Yet Rivers said prior to Thursday’s game that Embiid and Denver Nuggets two-time MVP Nikola Jokic might be the league’s only current players who, when they miss games, “you have to play almost completely different.”

Embiid was on pace to again lead the NBA in scoring (35.3 points per game), fueled by an automatic mid-range jumper, forceful frame, and ability to operate with the ball in his hands in the middle of the floor. But he also had continued to progress as a facilitator, averaging a career-best 5.7 assists for one of the NBA’s most efficient offenses. And he is an intimidating defensive anchor.

It’s also unfair to directly compare the Sixers’ roster constructions under Rivers and Nurse.

Rivers had the All-Star, pre-holdout (and pre-back injury) version of Ben Simmons in his first season. For part of his second and all of his third seasons, Rivers had James Harden — who was in decline but still an All-Star-caliber player — along with an emerging Maxey.

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Though Maxey made the All-Star leap this season by averaging 25.9 points and 6.2 assists per game, that opposing defenses now make him the focal point is still a relatively new experience. Tobias Harris, meanwhile, has been inconsistent-to-poor as a second option. And while this team boasts depth, it has also been hit with a bevy of injuries that have prevented rotation continuity throughout the season under a first-year coaching staff.

That’s why Nurse acknowledged, “I’m not so sure we’ve figured out, as a group,” how to collectively replace Embiid’s gaudy scoring numbers. The Sixers failed to reach 80 points in two consecutive games at the New York Knicks earlier this week, and ranked 28th in offensive efficiency (107.7 points per 100 possessions) in 12 games since the All-Star break entering Friday.

The Sixers have tried to push the pace more, with the speedy Maxey leading the charge. Nurse also has moved guard Buddy Hield, big man Paul Reed, and forward Nico Batum to the bench, and inserted Lowry and center Mo Bamba into the starting lineup. Harris on Thursday commended the way the Sixers got back to ball and body movement against the Bucks, helping them shoot 49.4% from the floor and 17-of-35 from three-point range.

Rivers, though, called the Sixers’ defensive pressure “their lifeline right now,” despite missing perimeter pests De’Anthony Melton and Robert Covington for the bulk of the last two months. Thursday initially followed that formula, when the Sixers parlayed 10 Milwaukee first-half turnovers into 17 points. Only nabbing five takeaways for six points after the break, however, was “probably the difference in the game,” Nurse said.

Those high-effort plays are part of the “fight” Nurse has been preaching in recent days, a word that also can be applied to blocking out for rebounds, closing out on shooters, and setting physical screens. On Thursday, Nurse added “scrappier and dingier” when describing his desired defensive style.

“We’re having to play a little more grind-it style basketball right now,” Nurse said. “I just think that’s what we have.”

The Sixers can, however, make up that scoring gap “when Tyrese has a big night,” Nurse said. That was the case Thursday, when he oozed emotion while banging shots from beyond the arc and getting all the way to the basket in his second game back from a concussion. But after he reentered the game in the fourth quarter, the Bucks blitzed him with multiple defenders and took away the pocket pass to the big men.

“Kudos to them for making adjustments,” Maxey said. “They made multiple. I missed some shots, though. Some shots I normally make. …

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“When [Embiid] gets back, I think it’ll be a little bit easier for me. Just a little bit, though.”

Precisely when that will be remains uncertain. Though it has been more than four weeks since Embiid’s meniscus procedure, the Sixers have not provided an official update on his scheduled reevaluation beyond a vague Nurse comment that the big man has progressed to on-court work.

That means the quest to figure out how to win without Embiid continues with 16 regular-season games to play.

And the Sixers’ former coach understands the challenge of that task.

“It took guys getting confidence playing without him,” Rivers said. " … We did it, but it took a minute. It’s hard. It really is.”