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Last weekend, the Philadelphia 76ers had their first straight game series starting on Saturday night. Ahead of the game against the New York Knicks, Sixers head coach Doc Rivers admitted he will not reveal whether Embiid will play the second night back-to-back against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“You have to wait and see,” the head coach said on Saturday night. Sunday arrived and Embiid’s name did not appear on the team’s injury report hours before the report. That changed in the moments leading up to the game’s start, however.
« [Joel Embiid] actually intended to go, “Rivers said after Sunday night’s game against the Cavaliers.” He came out on the floor, and he had some stiffness in his back, and we just thought : ‘Why chance so early in the season?’ ”
Embiid, who has averaged just under 30 points per game this season, was left out of Sunday’s game less than an hour before the game started. While Rivers claims there is nothing to Fear in terms of Embiid’s injury, the team’s play without the triple All-Star was definitely concerning.
But the 76ers won’t use Embiid’s absence as an excuse. Despite losing 24 points to a smaller Cleveland Cavaliers team, the Sixers learned a lot about themselves on Sunday night. They can be a good team – even without Embiid on the pitch – but they have learned that they had a lot of work to do moving forward. And for Embiid to become a late scratch is not a valid reason why they lost.
“When that happens, you always have to be able to play and get through it,” Sixers head coach Doc Rivers said Sunday night. “There’s no excuse for it to affect your team. It’s going to happen all year round with the guys; they think they can get out – we wait and wait, then they tell us they can’t. Joel won’t be the only one. So someone has to intervene. I didn’t think we stepped up at all today. ”
Playing without Embiid is nothing new for Sixers starters Ben Simmons and Tobias Harris. Every year, the big man is expected to miss at least part of games due to injuries or load handling. We’ve seen Harris and Simmons do the job without him in the past, but on Sunday they just couldn’t win.
“At the end of the day, he wasn’t there, and we were on the floor, he had no control,” Simmons said after the loss. “[Son absence] could or not [avoir eu un impact], but it’s for us. We just need to lock in and play better. Whatever the situation. ”
“I would simply attribute [la défaite] to our game, ”said Sixers forward Tobias Harris.“ We knew when we started the game that Joel wasn’t there. So for us, we still have to play basketball. We have turned the ball too many times tonight. On top of that, we just didn’t have any real focus and energy on the defensive end, and they never felt us all playing .. That’s really where it starts and ends there. ”
The good news is that the Sixers appear to be moving forward with the assumption that they will have Embiid back for Tuesday night’s game against the Toronto Raptors as he is listed as likely. Whether or not he returns. , however, the 76ers know they need to clean up the turnovers and set a better pace on the pitch.
Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter: @JGrasso_
Philadelphia 76ers, Joel Embiid, Toronto Raptors, Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks, Doc Rivers
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