The Sixers nearly fought back from a 28-point deficit but fell 113-102 to the Houston Rockets, bringing them closer to a spot in the play-in following a Raptors win on Thursday night. Tyrese Maxey, Quentin Grimes, and VJ Edgecombe all scored 20+ points for the 76ers in a losing effort.

Here’s what I saw.

Too little, too late

I came into this game expecting one of two different extreme outcomes. Either the Sixers were going to summon a spirited performance and offer a glimmer of hope after the Joel Embiid news, or they were going to lie down on the court and accept that their season was effectively over. The truth ended up being close to the middle. Being down 17 points at halftime is certainly closer to a concession, but the Sixers managed to make a game of this one in the end.

Philadelphia certainly fought early, and can take their credit for that. Kelly Oubre had an inspired first quarter, filling the scoring void as Tyrese Maxey went scoreless for the first 12 minutes of the game. The veteran wing had a pair of threes and was one of the few perimeter players not overwhelmed by Houston’s size at the point of attack, picking up a few baskets in early offense with rugged drives that left him with nothing more than an eight-footer to make. His defense was even better, with Oubre collecting three steals and battling his tail off to try to hold the Sixers together in the face of adversity.

Maxey would eventually find his footing in the second quarter, putting together a 15-point period almost out of nowhere, turning early misses at the rim and hesitation from deep into a downtown barrage, with Maxey finally finding a bit of aggressiveness from deep after seeing one go down. In the circumstances, it might be the only thing from this game that truly matters — Maxey provided some hope that he can play effectively through any hand pain, and offer the scoring punch they need to hang with better teams in the playoffs, assuming they get there.

Without Joel Embiid to draw pressure off of the other guys, Philadelphia’s issues became apparent. Houston turned the Sixers over 11 times in the first half, all on the same sort of play, swarming the Sixers’ ballhandlers at the free-throw line and kick-starting fast breaks with a ton of swipe downs. It’s a cruel irony that the Sixers are the perfect opponent to unleash a Nick Nurse-style defense against, as you can dare their bad shooters in the corners and commit all your bodies middle to muck up the game. The Rockets turned the second quarter into a track meet, running all over the Sixers for easy bucket after easy bucket on the break.

(I do think the hand issue may have impacted Maxey on the turnover front, because he lost the ball twice on drives where it seemed like he simply lost his grip on the ball while trying to gather and turn it over for a pass or shot attempt. Maybe I am reading too much into it, but since ball security is normally a strength of his, unforced giveaways are out of character at the very least.)

When you’re as reliant on a rookie guard as the Sixers are, sometimes you’re going to end up on the low side of the see saw on the wrong night. VJ Edgecombe had a couple of nice moments in this game and shot the ball well from deep, but his inside-the-arc touch was brutal in the middle periods, and the Rockets overwhelmed him with size for a few despicable misses. The want to was there, with Edgecombe climbing over Houston players for offensive rebounds, and his passing was terrific as he spent the fourth quarter leading them from the point of attack. He has all the signs of a guy who will put it all together in years two and three, but for now, it’s the classic look of an emerging young player, with Edgecombe flashing in one area while struggling in others. Good enough to battle, not good enough to carry the team yet.

Nick Nurse absolutely tried a few things to adjust to their new reality. Jabari Walker was pulled out of the doghouse for his first rotation minutes in a while, immediately depositing a putback layup on an offensive rebound after checking into the game. The Sixers tried a small lineup of Maxey/Edgecombe/Grimes/George/Barlow to open the second quarter, abandoning it less than two minutes later after Houston went on a 6-0 run to push their lead to 15. I’m not sure this is the team you begin testing small ball against with all their available size and athleticism, but I appreciate that there was at least an attempt to do something different with their immediate future torn apart by Embiid’s illness.

I certainly won’t defend the effort the Sixers put on the floor in the third quarter when the game was still up for grabs. Josh Okogie was a one-man wrecking crew early in the third quarter, racking up five offensive rebounds on Thursday by overwhelming the Sixers with nothing more than a running motor. The rest of the Rockets hardly got out of first gear in the second half, and they didn’t really have to, with the ball movement so quick and Durant’s shotmaking so effortless that it didn’t need to be an all-action half for the Houston boys.

The Philadelphia men left standing in the fourth made a valiant effort to pull the Sixers back, with Quentin Grimes, Edgecombe, and Andre Drummond doing their best to make this look like a competitive game after the Rockets started to sleepwalk toward the finish line. Houston was shellshocked by a Sixers team that hadn’t given up, suddenly unable to keep up with the Sixers in transition as Edgecombe pushed the pace and sprayed the ball all over the floor. Grimes was comfortable in his old stomping grounds, hitting some tough midrange jumpers to slowly chip away at the lead, keeping Maxey and Oubre parked on the bench as the score grew closer.

I can only assume that Ime Udoka dropped a fair number of MFers in the huddle after a Justin Edwards score on the break turned this into a single-digit game with just under five minutes to play, because the Rockets finally broke through with a pair of must-have buckets to keep the Sixers at arm’s length. It was just enough to avoid the ultimate disaster for Houston, and maybe just enough to keep hope alive in the hearts of the most optimistic Sixers fans.

A more charitable viewer might claim that the putrid effort in the middle periods was this team simply saving some juice for a must-win game in Indiana on Friday night, a game where the 76ers have a much better chance of victory than heading into the Space City beatdown. Based on Maxey sitting the bulk of the fourth quarter, I might even half agree with the thought. The trouble is that they are close to locked into a play-in scenario, with the Raptors now only needing a win against the measly Brooklyn Nets to shut the door on the No. 6 seed. Saving anything for an Indiana game you should win in your sleep feels relatively pointless, but nobody asked me.

Maybe this group isn’t ready to die, but natural causes don’t care

Other notes

— There’s not a lot more to say about this one, other than sharing the good news that Joel Embiid had successful surgery on Thursday. It seems unlikely, though not impossible, that he will make it back on the floor this season, but this is an instance where his health and well-being absolutely come first.

— Paul George better play and play well tomorrow in Indiana, because he brought just about nothing to the table in this game.