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VanVleet missed a fourth straight game due to a left big toe sprain. He’s still experiencing swelling so VanVleet and the club will continue practising patience, even though it can be frustrating to miss time.

Wright had only been able to make two appearances, for only 18 total minutes because of his own issue, but Nurse said it’s a matter of conditioning at this point, not pain that is limiting Wright. Once he gets back into game shape following his layoff the club will be able to utilize him more “I think health-wise he’s good. It’s just rhythm-wise, he’s gotta get back in there,” Nurse said before the game.

“Probably (Monday) in the loss in Milwaukee in which Wright returned to play 13 minutes) would have liked to run him more there at the end, it’s just more of a, it’s not a maintenance thing, it just probably wasn’t worth having him out there in that (out of reach) game to do that. We’ll throw him out there tonight and let him get his rhythm. He feels better, at least,” Nurse said.

“We’ve just gotta get him back to Delon, a little more aggressive, a little more pace, a little more confidence. I’m sure he’ll finish a few of those layups that he had last night that were good moves, he looked good with the ball last night and got to places that he likes to get to, those things will start going in for him.” Wright looked a lot more like his old self on a drive in the second quarter that resulted in a reverse layup. He added a three-pointer and a driving dunk for good measure.

Sophomore forward OG Anunoby missed the game due to a personal matter.

CAN’T WIN THEM ALL

Nurse didn’t seem too broken up over his short-handed team’s performance the night before against the Bucks. He hoped his team would learn from it, while also giving credit to Milwaukee, a team that set a franchise record for three-pointers.

“We made some mistakes … but they were good, man. I’m not gonna get on our guys too hard. (The Bucks) were great.” Nurse sagely said not having VanVleet, Anunoby or Leonard, perhaps the club’s top three defenders, had a lot to do with Milwaukee’s offence hitting on all cylinders.

Milwaukee leads the NBA in rebounds per game so Nurse can excuse his Raptors for some of its poor work on the boards, but overall, Toronto came into the Sixers game fifth from the bottom in defensive rebound percentage.