Sixers fall to Hawks, but Buddy Hield and Cameron Payne star in their Philly debuts

Sixers President of basketball operations Daryl Morey met with the media before the Sixers game against the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night.

Welcome to Philly, and get out there and start against the Atlanta Hawks.

That could have easily been the conversations 76ers coach Nick Nurse had with new additions Buddy Hield and Cameron Payne.

After being acquired in separate trades Thursday, the duo had physicals Friday morning at the team’s practice facility. Then they participated in that evening’s walkthrough at Wells Fargo Center before being in the starting lineup 2½ hours later.

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Unfortunately for the undermanned Sixers, their presence didn’t lead to a victory. They lost, 127-121, extending their losing streak to four games. In all, the Sixers (30-21) have lost eight of their last nine games.

Hield finished with 20 points and six assists and made 4 of 12 three-pointers. Payne finished with 20 points, six assists, and two steals. Kelly Oubre Jr. had a team-high 28 points and 12 rebounds. Tobias Harris had 21 points and seven assists, while Paul Reed added 12 points and 13 rebounds for his third double-double of the season (and ninth of his career).

Sixers guard Buddy Hield dribbles the basketball against Atlanta Hawks guard Bogdan Bogdanovic in the first quarter on Friday. He finished with 20 points and six assists in his debut.

Hawks three-time All-Star Trae Young had game-highs of 37 points and 12 assists.

Despite the setback, Hield is elated to be a Sixer.

“I’m glad to be here,” he said. “I thank God for this opportunity. I’m going to take full advantage of it.”

As in most of their previous losses, the Sixers were decimated by injuries. But this was worse due to also trading away five players on Thursday. Before Hield and Payne were cleared to play, the Sixers only had eight available players. Three of them were two-way players — Terquavion Smith, Ricky Council IV and Kenny Lofton Jr.

Harris was the Sixers’ lone regular starter who played. Reigning league MVP Joel Embiid is sidelined after Tuesday’s surgery on the meniscus in his left knee. All-Star Tyrese Maxey is out with an illness. De’Anthony Melton remains sidelined with a back injury (a lumbar spine stress response). And Nico Batum continues to be out with a strained left hamstring. The Sixers also remained without key reserve Robert Covington (left knee bone bruise).

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Nurse said Melton and Batum could return before the All-Star break, which starts late next week. Meanwhile, Sixers president of basketball operation Daryl Morey is hopeful that Embiid returns this season. The seven-time All-Star’s recovery time is six to eight weeks.

“We’re hopeful,” Morey said before the game. “Feedback has been more good than bad since the first we heard about what led to his procedure. So we’re hopeful. We’re building the team to make it better this year. Obviously, it’s not 100 percent.

“But we felt like with Joel playing at an MVP level, hopefully he can get back to that. That this was a year that we got a real shot.”

With all these injuries on top of losing Marcus Morris Sr., Patrick Beverley, Danuel House Jr., Furkan Korkmaz, and Jaden Springer in trades, Friday’s loss wasn’t surprising.

But the Sixers did show a lot of grit.

The Hawks (23-29) jumped out to an early 14-point lead and extended it to 22 points in the third quarter. However, the Sixers pulled within four points on Hield’s basket to make it 125-121 with 3.3 seconds left.

“Just learning new schemes and terminology from the coaches, you could tell today that everything was out of whack,” Hield said. “Like, we were trying to figure it out. But as you get comfortable and everything calms down, we got NBA players and we start to figure it out. We start to talk.

“Now, we had a better second half than a first half. [If] we flushed that first half and [you] give us that second half and other one, I think we can probably put out a better result.”

Covington has knee injection

Friday marked the 19th consecutive game that Covington missed with the knee bone bruise. The reserve forward received a bone marrow injection in the knee a couple of weeks ago.

“Basically my own stem cell,” Covington said. “We did that, and the [doctor] said it’s going to be a couple-week recovery process. So it was either that or go the route that Jo did essentially.”

The 11th-year veteran wasn’t referring to meniscus surgery. He stressed his injury was “literally a bone bruise.” Covington also had irritated cartilage and loose bodies floating in his knee.

“So I went and got that taken care of,” he said. “The bone marrow injection, and it’s a step-by-step process. You don’t want to take it too far.”

The 6-foot-7 forward suffered the injury during the Sixers’ 131-126 victory over the Washington Wizards at the Capital One Arena on Dec. 6. But he kept playing with the pain through the 105-92 loss to Chicago Bulls at the United Center.

However, Covington realized he couldn’t go any longer while trying to defend then-teammate House at a Jan. 2 shootaround.

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