The Philadelphia 76ers have shown they can survive without Joel Embiid.

The Sixers won for the second straight game without the reigning Most Valuable Player in a 131-127 victory over the Houston Rockets on Friday.

Embiid will be sidelined again for the second leg of a back-to-back against the Bulls in Chicago on Saturday night with a sprained right ankle as the Sixers will look for their third consecutive victory.

“He’s on the court again,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said Friday of Embiid’s recovery. “He’s still a little sore. But he was on the court again today. Just trying to make sure that he’s a little bit better before we bring him back. … We hope that he’ll be ready for the next (trip).”

Embiid is averaging a league-best 35.0 points per game and is fifth in rebounding (11.7).

Without Embiid, Tyrese Maxey led the way against the Rockets with 42 points — 13-of-26 shooting from the field and 14-of-15 from the free-throw line. Tobias Harris added 22 points, De’Anthony Melton had 15, and Marcus Morris Sr. came off the bench to produce 14.

Morris scored 10 of his 14 in the fourth quarter.

“Maxey did a heck of a job of carrying us in this game,” Morris said on a postgame interview on NBC Sports Philadelphia. “We came out flat.”

Maxey played 41 minutes and anchored the Sixers, who desperately needed that production without Embiid.

“That was a good level of aggressiveness,” Nurse said. “I thought he was great and had his jets on tonight.”

The Bulls will look to rebound following a 120-104 loss to the Indiana Pacers on Thursday. Patrick Williams led the Bulls with 22 points while DeMar DeRozan added 21.

Because the Bulls have dealt with a litany of injuries this season, DeRozan’s workload has increased. The 34-year-old has played more than 40 minutes in six games this month.

“I’m concerned about that,” Chicago coach Billy Donovan said. “I mean, he’s great. I talk to him all the time. But it’s kind of the situation we’ve been in with Torrey (Craig) out, Vooch (Nikola Vucevic) out and Zach (LaVine) out. I want to be mindful of that and always talk and communicate with him. He has played a lot of minutes, and I probably need to look at that.”

The Bulls fell behind early and weren’t able to recover despite the strong performances by Williams and DeRozan.

“You never want to put yourself in a position to have to fight back from a deficit,” Williams said. “We did a good job obviously working our way back into the game, but it’s tough to expend all that energy to get back.”

Without Craig, Vucevic and LaVine, the 15-year veteran DeRozan will be counted on even more than usual.

It’s a challenge he fully accepts.

“I feel good, better than expected,” DeRozan said. “I’ve always done a great job of trying to take care of myself physically. Even now, just doing extra stuff, a lot of stuff that a lot of people just don’t know or realize that I do after games, on off days.”

–Field Level Media