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Tim BontempsESPN
Joel Embiid was aware of the situation of his Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday night against the visiting Miami Heat.
Playing short-handed for the third game in a row and back-to-back on the second night – and that was before Philadelphia’s two available point guards, Ben Simmons and Tyrese Maxey, made a mistake – it would have been easy for the Sixers to pack it up.
However, Embiid had other ideas.
Thanks to a dominant second half – in which he scored 35 of his season-high 45 points to go along with 16 rebounds, four assists and five steals for a final stat-line – only Charles Barkley matched in a Sixers uniform in almost a half year. Century – Embiid was able to drag the Sixers across the finish line as they achieved a 137-134 overtime victory at the Wells Fargo Center.
“It was necessary,” said Embiid of his performance, which included a run of 11 straight points for the Sixers, from the competition basket with 3.3 seconds to go by the rules until he hit a midrange jumper with 2:03 to go. . after a while. “We needed it tonight.”
“We lost three games in a row. Our mindset should always be that we should never lose two games in a row, and we lost three in a row,” he explained, “so there was no chance that we would be four in a row. “I lost. Row. So whatever I had to do and whatever my teammates had to do, we did it and we got the win.”
Philadelphia breaking its losing streak and getting back into the win column was largely down to Embiid’s job – something that didn’t look like it was about to happen at halftime. Embiid had 10 points and seven rebounds at half time, but he wasn’t exactly involved – although he did more than Simmons, who struggled massively after missing the previous two games with left knee swelling. Simmons made five turnovers in the first half and eventually went out with five points and 12 assists to go with six turnovers in 32 minutes.
But while Simmons struggled, Embiid came out of the recess possessed. Embiid scored 20 points in the third quarter alone to swing the game back towards Philadelphia, putting the team on its back thanks, in part, to a minor adjustment by Sixers coach Doc Rivers to get him the ball in several places on the floor.
“We put him in the middle of the floor,” Rivers said, “because whenever we put him under the free-throw line, as far as we throw him at him, that’s where they came from.
“I thought [Miami] really struggled, found where to catch or from whom to catch; and it also allowed Joel to see when people were trapping him where to throw the ball, so it’s a good adjustment. “
“[But] he picked this game for us tonight, ”the coach said of Embiid.
That was especially true when Simmons and Maxey made a mistake. Embiid had the ball in his hands virtually every ride on the track after that, with Rivers essentially using him as a point center.
Rivers said the Sixers played essentially the same piece – called “Delay,” one that Philly didn’t install until Tuesday morning at shootaround – out of necessity for most of the fourth quarter and overtime because the point guards went down.
“Sometimes life is happiness,” Rivers said with a laugh. “We laughed on the couch … It’s amazing. We’re working on it today, and then it will be a savior for us.”
Embiid, meanwhile, was quite happy with the chance to have the ball in his hands.
“Point center, point guard or whatever you want to call it, I enjoy it,” he said. “It works well.”
For Embiid, who has never been shy about expressing his feelings, some of that rise in the second half may have come from frustration at the NBA as the Sixers continued to play short-handed. This was the third game in a row that the Sixers had lost some key components after a large number of players entered the league’s health and safety protocols in the wake of Seth Curry who tested positive in Brooklyn last week.
After the NBA delayed the Heat’s game against the Boston Celtics on Sunday – a day after the Sixers had only seven healthy players available for a loss at home to the Denver Nuggets – Embiid tweeted, “THEY HATE THE PROCESS,” in what could be. are seen as an opportunity in the NBA because he didn’t do the same for his team the day before.
Asked after Tuesday’s game whether Philly should have played, Embiid didn’t hesitate in his answer.
“No,” he said. “It seems like every other game is getting canceled all the time. But we, I think the league just keeps letting us play. There’s really no other explanation, especially that game in Denver, when we had to dress an injured player to make sure. we had enough players to compete – while other teams that haven’t had that many players and the league hasn’t resulted in any of them dressing an injured player, just to make sure there’s a match going on.
“So that’s a shame, but it’s the next guy. You can’t complain about it. Victories still count, losses still count; we have to get all these wins. We have to keep fighting until those guys get back, and that’s our job. “
Another motivating point for Embiid this season is that last year’s All-NBA teams are missing. Embiid was vocal that he felt he deserved to be named one of the top three centers in the league, and he was motivated to prove that people were wrong in leaving him this season.
After Tuesday’s game, Embiid has so far averaged over 26 points and 12 rebounds per game this campaign. And when asked if he’s still gathering the motivation from last season’s awards, he said he was – adding that this will take care of itself provided the Sixers continue to take victories this season.
“It is, but I’m not focused on that,” he said. “The main goal is to win a championship. When it comes to individual prizes, that can’t happen unless you win games. So the main thing I’m concerned about is winning.
Because at the end of the day, if I win, if we win, and we get the first seed, there’s no reason you know I shouldn’t be in MVP, talks about defensive player of the year, All- NBA first team and all that stuff. ”
“It all goes back to the same thing: winning,” he added. “But the main goal is to win the championship; we try to prepare for what’s to come, the play-offs and [getting] up to that level. So like I said, it all goes back to winning. “