Tyrese Maxey leaves game early with a back contusion as Sixers lose 119-102 to the Trail Blazers

It’s always something holding back the 76ers.

They woke up Monday with a goal of building off Saturday’s unexpected victory over the Golden State Warriors. Instead, they went backward in a 119-102 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.

The loss at the Wells Fargo Center dropped the Sixers to 21-39 and in an 11th-place tie with the Brooklyn Nets. It was their 10th loss in 11 games. They are 2½ games behind the 10th-place Chicago Bulls for the final NBA Play-In Tournament spot with 22 games remaining.

But this loss became less surprising as the day wore on.

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Paul George (left groin tightness) and Kelly Oubre Jr. (illness) were both scratched from the game after being listed before the game as questionable. Then Tyrese Maxey suffered a lower-back contusion midway through the third quarter. The point guard laid on his back grimacing in pain underneath the basket after taking a hard fall on a missed layup. After getting up, Maxey headed straight to the locker room area to be evaluated. He did not return.

“Had a couple doctors check him out,” coach Nick Nurse said. “At this point, nothing too serious. They did say that could change in the morning, but hopefully not. He is going to travel [to Minneapolis with the team]. They, as of now, list him day-to-day.”

And with a little over a minute left, Sixers rookie Justin Edwards left after re-spraining his left ankle.

“I’m good,” Edwards said. “I just tweaked it again, but I’m good, though.”

The former Imhotep Charter standout was able to walk on his ankle at the end of his evaluation. Like Maxey, Edwards, George, and Oubre were expected to travel with the team for Tuesday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Target Center. They’re all listed as day-to-day.

The Sixers are already without Kyle Lowry (right hip injury management) and three other players — Joel Embiid (left knee swelling), Eric Gordon (right wrist surgery) and Jared McCain (left knee surgery) — who are out for the season.

On this night, the Sixers played valiantly but couldn’t overcome the missing bodies.

“It’s tough when you have three starters go down like that that we kind of thought we were going to have,” Quentin Grimes said of losing Maxey, George, and Oubre. “But I felt like for the majority of the game, we played with energy. We kind of got a little tired, a little gassed at the end. And they kind of got a little spark, went on a little run.”

The Blazers turned an 11-point first-quarter deficit into a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter. Even when the Sixers had the lead, the result never appeared to be in doubt for Portland. And it became obvious that any hope Philly had was lost when Maxey left the game with 6 minutes, 42 seconds left in the third quarter. At that time, Portland had a 74-68 lead.

The Blazers’ Anfernee Simons finished with a game-high 34 points. Shaedon Sharpe added 20 points, a career-high 11 rebounds, and five assists. And Donovan Clingan had 13 points, 13 rebounds, and three blocks.

Andre Drummond had his best game as a Sixer this season. The center finished with season highs of 25 points and 18 rebounds. Edwards had 16 points, while Quentin Grimes added 14 points and nine assists after scoring a career-high 44 on Saturday vs. the Warriors.

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Maxey had a tough shooting night before exiting with his back injury. The point guard had five points on 2-for-13 shooting. He totaled 10 points on 4-for-27 in the last two games after scoring 30 points on 12-for-32 shooting against the New York Knicks last week.

Drummond kept the Sixers competitive for a while. He secured his second straight and fifth overall double-double of the season on a seven-foot hook shot with 2:38 remaining in the first half. Drummond scored 10 second-quarter points and had 16 points and 11 rebounds at intermission.

In the first half, the 31-year-old scored on three alley-oops, a three-pointer, a hook shot, a cutting dunk, and a floater.

But the Blazers outscored the Sixers, 35-20, in the third quarter to take a 91-81 advantage and never looked back.

Tuesday’s matchup (8 p.m., NBCSP) will mark the Sixers’ first meeting with the Timberwolves (33-29) this season.