PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers will prepare for their first back-to-back game Wednesday as they prepare to take on the undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers after a loss to the New York Knicks Tuesday.

Joel Embiid made his season debut while Philadelphia got to see the Embiid-Paul George duo for the first time. The big guy had 13 points on 2-of-11 shooting in his return to the court while George had 29 points on 10-of-19 shooting and 7-of-11 from deep with 10 rebounds.

Embiid was definitely a little rusty upon his return and coach Nick Nurse acknowledged that after the loss.

“I mean, look, he sure was rusty, right?” Said the nurse. “Both rusty a little bit and conditioned, I think, showed up pretty early. We’ve seen him play through that before and respond in the second half after being laid off a little bit. He seemed to do that a little bit , but then I thought he was still a little tired in the fourth but again, that was probably normal, I thought he played with a pretty good competitive spirit for what he could do there -down.

As far as George is concerned, this was by far his best game in Philadelphia. The confidence and comfort with which he played was evident and he will now look to continue that path.

“I thought our guys did a good job of him freeing up some for some looks,” Nurse said of George. “Some of the similar looks he got on some of the similar sets, and, obviously, he did them tonight. That always helps. I think he got a burst of energy out of it. He started early. He was able to go on for… look, he did one or two really difficult ones, didn’t he, but other than that, I think he did a good job creating, or we left him one? little space to look good but, yeah, I thought he looked really confident scoring the ball tonight.”

As the Sixers now prepare for the Cavaliers, the question arises whether Embiid or George will be available on the second night of a back-to-back. Nurse isn’t sure if any of its stars will be available.

“Yeah, regarding Joel and Paul, both of them, we’re not sure right now,” Nurse said Tuesday night. “They’re going to check them here. They’re going to check them in the morning just to see where they’re at and we’ll try to update you as soon as possible.”

The Sixers and Cavs will be notified Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. EST.

This article was originally published on Sixers Wire: Nick Nurse evaluates Joel Embiid and Paul George as 76ers prepare for Cavs