The Sixers must address their rebounding problems before it’s too late

The 76ers have a rebounding issue.

Their 24 rebounds in Thursday’s 113-111 victory over the Sacramento Kings were the third-fewest posted by an NBA team this season.

The Sixers (26-21) can’t brush this off as just an isolated incident. Over the last 11 games, they’ve ranked last in the league in rebounding at 39.5 per game.

So what is the biggest issue? Effort? Or being undersized?

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The Sixers went with a starting lineup centered on Joel Embiid and four perimeter players in four of their last five games, with Kelly Oubre Jr., Paul George, VJ Edgecombe, and Tyrese Maxey alongside the big man.

Embiid is a towering center at 7-foot-2. Oubre and George are both 6-8 forwards who have played shooting guard in previous seasons. Edgecombe is a 6-5 shooting guard, while Maxey, an All-Star starter, is a 6-2 point guard.

The Sixers only have two other rotation players — reserve center Andre Drummond (6-11) and reserve power forward Dominick Barlow (6-9) — taller than Oubre and George.

“Well, I think that it’s a few things,” coach Nick Nurse said of the rebounding issue. “Sometimes it’s size and athleticism, whether it’s playing against bigger guys, more athletic, stronger, or whatever. Sometimes it’s just not paying attention to details and getting a body on people.

“And sometimes, I think it’s defense in general. You give a few [rebounds] and the blood’s in the water. Those guys just seem to get cracked up after they get a couple. And they’re just like, ‘Man, this is an easy way to live tonight. I’m going to really focus on that.’”

When that happens, the Sixers must put in more effort, and Nurse must devise a strategy to secure more rebounds.

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Against a player like Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis, who is a rebounding machine, the Sixers assigned two players to try to slow him down.

“Those guys were blocking him out in front of them,” Nurse said. “The balls were coming over the head, and got to be somebody else’s.”

The Sixers might also benefit from giving Drummond more playing time.

Despite averaging 8.7 rebounds in 19.6 minutes and leading the Sixers in the category, Drummond didn’t enter Thursday’s game until the start of the fourth quarter. At that point, the Kings (12-37) had a commanding 37-18 rebounding advantage.

Drummond did not play in six of the previous nine games. The Sixers felt 6-8center Adem Bona, an undersized but athletic rim protector, was better suited to back up Embiid in those games.

But due to the growing rebounding disparity, Nurse said he might look at Drummond coming off the bench more moving forward.

“I think that the smaller lineup that we are playing is obviously something to look at as well,” Nurse said. “I think Drummond with big, really big centers like that. [The Kings] played big all night, but they’re also pretty physical. All four of their bigs that they play are physical. And I think that probably called for a Joel, Bona lineup or Drummond, [Jabari] Walker. Just maybe different than what we did [Thursday] because it was difficult to rebound.”

The Sixers will look to extend their home winning streak to three games on Saturday against the New Orleans Pelicans. The game will also be recognized as the 25th anniversary reunion game, celebrating the 2000-01 Eastern Conference championship team.

Members of the team, which lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals, will be on hand for several celebrations in their honor.

“It’ll be great,” George said of the festivities. “Obviously, it’s a tradition here. Being a part of the Sixers family, organization, that group means a lot to the city. It’ll be awesome to kind of share the space, the moment, and play in front of them. We want to represent them the same way that they represented the city.”