ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The Philadelphia 76ers have been waiting 3.5 weeks to get a full 33 minutes from Joel Embiid.

They finally got it on Friday night, but it came with a 98-86 loss to the Orlando Magic that dropped the 76ers to 2-10.

“Usually it takes two, three or four games for me to recover. Today was a big step in the right direction,” said Embiid, who finished the game with 20 points and 8 rebounds, pulling away from the 76ers in the fourth quarter. “We are a new group. We just weren’t organized. I thought our defense was good, but starting with me, we started turning the ball over. We were indecisive on offense. Things we can fix.”

Embiid, the 2023 NBA MVP who missed Philadelphia’s first 10 games due to “knee management” and a three-game suspension, had six turnovers and missed 10 of 15 shots, including five 3-pointers.

“My legs were a little tight in the second half and I felt like every shot I took was short,” he said.

“I guess there’s some fatigue there,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said. “They were doing a good job of bluffing by either sending a body (to Embiid) or sending two. I think we got a little indecisive and then the shot clock slowed down and we couldn’t create anything very good.”

The 76ers are off to a bad start due to the absence of Embiid (10 games), Paul George (seven games) and Tyrese Maxey (five games). Friday night’s defeat nearly eliminated them from NBA Cup contention, and Nurse called it a “do-or-die game.”

“It’s still an ongoing process to figure all this out for everyone. This is not an excuse. “We’ve got to get better,” George said. “But I think we’ll get to a point where we’ll find an identity. It’s a shame it’s taken a while. But the season is long.”

Is he tall enough to overcome a 2-10 start?

“When you have the record we have, it’s hard not to look at it,” Embiid said. “But we have had a lot of trouble so far, the players have been out. And I think the biggest thing is we have a lot of new guys. “As you can see on the ground, it’s going to take a while for everyone to get on the same page.”

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