PHILADELPHIA — Tyrese Maxey heard the news about Paul George’s 25-game suspension Saturday and, as is his wont, started working the phones. The first reaction was support for George, who cited mental health remedies in a statement to ESPN as the possible culprit for a positive drug test that wil l cost him more than six weeks and some $11 million in salary. The second was for Maxey to shore up the 76ers who will help fill the void until March 25, when George is eligible to return. And Maxey’s fingers quickly dialed up three numbers. “I hit Jared, Justin and Trendon,” Maxey said Saturday night after a 124-114 win over New Orleans capped a tumultuous day. “I said, listen, y’all got to be ready. I know Kelly is going to be ready. That’s just who he is. But Jared, Justin and Trendon, those three guys, they haven’t played in playoff basketball, and last year, we weren’t good, you know. So they didn’t play meaningful basketball. … We need those guys to really step up and play good basketball for us.” George’s suspension occasioned plenty of name listing by Nick Nurse and company. Kelly Oubre, who started earlier this season and has lately reintegrated to the starting five alongside George, is the one on whom much of the burden will be pressed. But Maxey’s zeroing in on Jared McCain, Justin Edwards and Trendon Watford is, as usual for the starting point guard in the All-Star Game, savvy court vision. Night 1 of life without George didn’t exactly provide a reliable blueprint. Joel Embiid was excellent, with 40 points and 11 rebounds in 39:01, his first 40-point game since Game 3 of the Knicks series in 2024. Maxey shot just 7-for-18 from the field for 18 points and eight assists. Oubre, expectedly, stepped up with 19 points and 10 boards. But the 76ers still exhibited many of their recent troublesome traits. They played down to an opponent, the woeful 13-38 Pelicans whose ostensible star Zion Williamson sleepwalked through three quarters. They were beaten in the third, a unit that George as recently as Tuesday was instrumental in stabilizing. They didn’t get much offensively in the first three quarters from VJ Edgecombe, though he hit a clutch late 3 for the umpteenth time. And they allowed a wing to go crazy, in this case Villanova product Saddiq Bey with 34 points in a potential trade-deadline audition to return to the Xfinity Mobile Arena. First came offers of support for George, who is eligible to return with 10 games left in the regular season. Barring some major trade, the nine-time All-Star will be part of the team’s postseason plan. “PG is irreplaceable,” Edgecombe said. “Obviously he’s a superstar. He’s really, really good at basketball, but he’s a great leader also. It wasn’t the best news, but he’s still a part of the team. He said he wanted us to go out there and play every night, play hard, and that’s what we’re going to do.” “I know a lot of people have mixed feelings about what he brings to the table, but you can’t replace what he does for us defensively, probably our best perimeter defender,” Embiid said. “Offensively, he can play so many roles, knock down shots, post up, creation, playmaking. You can’t replace it. It’s going to be tough moving forward. But we’ve got to try.” “First of all, we stand with Paul,” Maxey said. “We appreciate him. And as a team, we’re going to rally behind him and make sure that he’s good and gets whatever he needs.” Replacing George will have to be by committee. Nurse will (continue) to exhort more offensive aggression from Edgecombe. Figures like Jabari Walker and Watford, on the fringes of a healthy rotation at the wing, will get chances, Walker to replace the defense and rebounding, Watford with his ability to dictate offense on the second unit. The recent resurgence from McCain will be vital to replace George’s perimeter shooting. McCain fell out of the rotation and got a conditioning stint in Delaware to try to jumpstart his game. He was the silver lining to the bludgeoning in Charlotte on Monday, getting 16 points in garbage time. He added 17 crucial points Tuesday against Milwaukee and hit four 3-pointers for 12 points Saturday, looking more confident with each release. Both McCain and Quentin Grimes, who has struggled to score since the beginning of January and is fighting an ankle issue, need to bring more offensively. Edwards becomes the next-man-up as defensive stopper. He supplied 11 valuable minutes in the first half Thursday against an inferior Sacramento, and the second-year pro has seemed confident pulling open 3-pointers even when it’s been days between games. Oubre is the most obvious replacement for George’s varied contributions. He started in that role to open the season while George was recovering from offseason knee surgery and responded with 18 points per game in 11 outings before a knee sprain in Detroit, some of his best basketball as a Sixer. “We’ve seen it,” Maxey said of Oubre. “We’ve seen it last year. We’ve seen it the year before. We’ve seen it early this year, he did a really good job early in the season, just kind of playing that role, scoring, rebounding and defending. … I have trust in him, because Kelly is a guy who is not scared of the moment, not scared of making the big shot, making a big play, getting a big stop.” “I just want to be a key contributor to winning, whether my role be what it was or what it is,” Oubre said. “I just try to take everything with grace and take the proper steps to be ready for anything.” The 76ers have experience playing without George. He played 41 games last year, the first season of a four-year, $212 million contract, and in 27 of 47 games this year. He’s professed himself a role player around the superstar axis of Embiid and Maxey. His absence will ask more of that duo, both on the court and in how they inspire more from the supporting cast, and it injects more uncertainty for a team looking to possibly upgrade at the wing and center before Thursday’s trade deadline. With George, the 76ers had yet to figure out a stable rotation, leaving the possibility of more on the table if synergy can be built with players like Watford and McCain with other regulars. George’s absence brings opportunity in the form of necessity. Someone will have to step up nightly, doubly so with Embiid’s minutes still be monitored. That conundrum isn’t new, though its tenor changed Saturday. “It’s been the same mentality since the beginning of the season, next man up,” Embiid said. “You can’t sit there and cry about it that you’re missing a player as good as Paul George. You’ve just got to find ways to keep competing and trying to win games.” Contact Matthew De George at [email protected] ...read more read less