Three observations after Paul George retired with left knee injury during Sixers’ preseason win originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Paul George left the Sixers’ game Monday night in Atlanta with a left knee injury that the team called a “hyperextension.”

In a much less significant development, the Sixers earned a 104-89 exhibition victory over the Hawks.

Tyrese Maxey scored 14 points on 5-for-18 shooting and seven assists. George had eight points on 3-for-5 shooting, two rebounds and an assist in 13 minutes (more on his injury below).

Outside of Joel Embiid’s absence, the Sixers started at full strength. A Sixers official said Sunday that Embiid will not play this preseason but that his left knee is “progressing well.” Sixers head coach Nick Nurse told Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer pregame that the team’s plan to manage Embiid’s health throughout the season is “right on track.”

Embiid provided more details about that plan in a story by ESPN’s Tim Bontemps.

“If I had to guess, I probably wouldn’t ever play back-to-backs for the rest of my career,” Embiid told ESPN.

The Sixers’ penultimate preseason game is Wednesday night against the Nets at Wells Fargo Center. The health of their stars is clearly a bigger storyline than that game.

Below are observations on Sixers-Hawks:

Join Gordon in the starting lineup

Instead of Caleb Martin, Nurse opted to start Eric Gordon alongside Maxey, Kelly Oubre Jr., George and Andre Drummond.

The Sixers fell behind 7-0. George opened the scoring for the team with a pull-up three-pointer, but the offense didn’t suddenly roll over from there. Many of the Sixers’ half-court possessions were sloppy and out of sync. George committed turnovers on consecutive plays.

From an individual standpoint, there is no mystery about the 35-year-old Gordon. The 6-foot veteran held up well as Jalen Johnson took him to the post early at 6-8 and contested a missed jumper. Gordon drained his first shot, hitting a catch-and-shoot three from the left wing.

As a unit, the Sixers’ starters bounced back quite a bit. George and Maxey scored 13 points in the first nine minutes of the game and looked dangerous when Atlanta’s defense wasn’t fully organized. When Nurse brought on Martin, Kyle Lowry and Guerschon Yabusele, the Sixers trailed by just one point.

Promising work from George plus the second unit

KJ Martin checked in to start the second quarter. Every Sixers starter, except George, watched from the sidelines.

Especially considering Nurse prefers to play Maxey for the entire first quarter, similar lineups would make sense on Embiid-less nights in the regular season. And beyond the basic idea that George is capable of leading heavy units, having Caleb Martin on the field at the start of the second quarter seemed like the right choice on Monday. He’s a versatile, switchable player and it doesn’t hurt that he’s been closely linked to Lowry since their time together on the Heat.

The Sixers had good possession right away, as drives from George and Caleb Martin eventually led to a wide-open Yabusele three. KJ Martin then scored an and-one layup in transition and the Sixers ultimately scored the first eight points of the second quarter.

The team used a nine-man rotation in the first half on Monday and did not play Ricky Council IV until the fourth quarter.

George’s early departure

George dropped out about four minutes into the second quarter, shortly after a nasty collision with Johnson. He did not return.

The Sixers provided an update on George early in the fourth quarter, calling his injury a “hyperextension of the left knee,” according to Mizell.

George told The Inquirer after the game that he is “not too concerned” about the injury.

At 34, George is coming off a season in which he played 74 games and averaged almost 34 minutes. Like Embiid, the Sixers care much more about George’s health in the postseason than his pre-playoff stats. And, as has long been the case with Embiid, anything related to a preseason or regular season game is far less important than the news that he has a knee injury.

Jared McCain (11 points on 4-for-10 shooting, four rebounds) was the only additional Sixer to play in the third quarter against Atlanta. The Sixers were able to build a double-digit lead and eventually improved to 2-2 in the preseason.