The Sixers experienced a flashback to last season’s injury misery. They hope reinforcements are on the way.

All nine questions posed to Nick Nurse during Tuesday’s pregame news conference pertained to the 76ers’ mounting injuries. Joel Embiid’s knee. VJ Edgecombe’s calf. Paul George’s ankle.

The five-minute session felt like a flashback to last season, when inquiries about statuses and ramp-ups and rotation ripple effects piled up as jarringly as the Sixers’ losses. So did the ensuing on-court product, a 144-103 shellacking by the Orlando Magic peppered with boos from the Xfinity Mobile Arena crowd.

The Sixers (9-8) so far have handled health absences significantly better than last season, though this version of the roster was at its most depleted Tuesday. Now the Sixers must prove that showing was a brutal blip that’s inevitable over the course of an 82-game regular season and not slippage into a “here we go again” injury conundrum.

“We weren’t who we are tonight,” Nurse said postgame. “I’m super proud of what they’ve done the rest of the other games. They fought like crazy. And tonight, we couldn’t catch and we couldn’t shoot and we couldn’t fight.”

» READ MORE: Sixers takeaways: Mounting injuries, poor defense, and more from blowout loss to the Magic

Nurse said pregame that he would be “really surprised” if the Sixers’ rotation remains this decimated for Friday’s matchup at the Brooklyn Nets. Embiid, who practiced fully Monday and participated in “parts” of Tuesday’s shootaround, was “trending” toward playing against the Magic before being ruled out for an eighth consecutive game because of right knee injury management, Nurse said. George, who is nursing a sprained ankle, had been downgraded from probable to play Tuesday to out.

To better withstand any inconsistent availability from the oft-injured Embiid and George, the Sixers deliberately got younger and more athletic. Their guard-heavy, fast-paced approach already has been more competitive and entertaining in this season’s first month than during virtually any stretch of 2024-25, when the Sixers were 3-14 through 17 games.

But now injuries have struck starting wing Kelly Oubre Jr., who was playing perhaps the best basketball of his career before a knee sprain that is scheduled to be reevaluated next week. Edgecombe’s terrific rookie season has been interrupted by a calf issue that could benefit from a cautious treatment approach. Reserve big man Adem Bona, whose size is needed when Embiid is sidelined, was testing his sprained ankle during pregame on-court work Tuesday.

Those absences have meant that, during the last week, the Sixers needed a career-high 54 points from star point guard Tyrese Maxey to beat a Milwaukee Bucks team missing Giannis Antetokounmpo in overtime (though that still was an admirable Sixers effort on the second night of a home-road back-to-back). Sunday’s loss to the Miami Heat was competitive until the Heat closed out the fourth quarter.

Then, after the opening frame, Tuesday was disastrous for the Sixers on both ends of the floor.

The injuries forced Dominick Barlow to be the starting forward and backup center, even against the 6-foot-11 Goga Bitadze. Rarely used veteran guard Eric Gordon played legitimate rotation minutes, and rookie big man Johni Broome entered during garbage time while chants of “We want Kyle [Lowry]!” rang through the arena.

Another in-game blow arrived in the second half, when versatile forward Trendon Watford collapsed to the floor with an adductor strain in his left leg.

Maxey unsurprisingly was the last starter standing Tuesday, and even he began the day listed on the injury report with a shoulder sprain he suffered vs. Miami.

» READ MORE: Is Joel Embiid injured? We’re tracking his current status and injury history.

He also entered the night leading the NBA in minutes per game (40.4), then logged another 31 minutes, 58 seconds in a game the Sixers trailed by as many as 46 points. His workload prompted a pregame question about whether it is time to strategically scale back Maxey’s playing time, especially after all that he shouldered physically and mentally during last season’s slog.

“We’re always trying to get him a few minutes here and there a little bit more,” Nurse said, “And just see if it presents itself. He’s obviously vital to the team, especially right now.”

Edgecombe, meanwhile, entered Tuesday ranked third in minutes (37.4 per game), a much heavier load than any college player experiences. Oubre also was in the top 20 in that category, at 34.8 per game, a number slightly skewed by logging only 14:56 before leaving the Nov. 14 loss at the Detroit Pistons with his knee injury.

Yet the injury bug is not only affecting the Sixers. The number of NBA stars — including the Magic’s Paolo Banchero — already missing notable time has again become a leaguewide topic in recent days. And Maxey publicly called for his deeper-bench teammates to seize their chance to make an impact.

“This is your time,” Maxey said during his postgame news conference. “When I was a rookie and guys either sat out or just got hurt, I knew I had to step up and bring something to the table to help our team win. And for the most part, every single time that happened, I pretty much did. …

“You wish for opportunity. Now, when the opportunity presents itself, you’ve got to go out there and put your mark on the game.”

That was a continuation of Maxey’s preseason vow to set a standard, and style of play, no matter who is on the floor. That sentiment has been echoed by Nurse, who said his primary goal was for spectators to conclude whenever they left the arena that the Sixers “played their [butts] off.”

» READ MORE: Tyrese Maxey more concerned about his friend’s health than having Joel Embiid back on the court

Calling Tuesday’s effort a failure in that regard would be a massive understatement. One could blame the depleted roster, which got two recovery days before Friday’s game in Brooklyn.

That will be the Sixers’ opportunity to squash what briefly felt like a flashback to last season’s injury misery.

“I know, firsthand, that’s the worst feeling to know when people go down,” said second-year guard Jared McCain, who underwent knee and thumb surgeries within the last year. “So I hate seeing it. … Now, it’s just chalk this game up [and] understand that this isn’t us.

“We’re not going to go back to last year. [We are] trying to do our best to just get back to our personality, our character, and how we play as a team.”