PHILADELPHIA — There are no major changes to the ending.
The Philadelphia 76ers left their home floor with New York fans chanting “Let’s Go Knicks” again after Tom Thibodeau and company earned another road win in the City of Brotherly Love. This time, Karl-Anthony Towns got a lot of love as he left the Wells Fargo Center court with his dad in tow, with Josh Hart and Miles McBride soon following. I was surprised.
Joel Embiid and his Sixers have been off the floor for a long time.
Their season, already off to a terrible start full of injuries, doubts and terrible matchup moments, continued its downward spiral with a 111-99 loss to the Knicks on Tuesday, dropping Philly to 2-8. But Philadelphia is hoping to wrap things up.
Well, maybe come Wednesday when the undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers play here.
For now, all the Sixers have to console themselves with is Embiid’s return on Tuesday after missing the first six games of the season as he continues to rehab his left knee, followed by a three-game suspension imposed by the NBA after Embiid shut out Philadelphia. Inquirer columnist during the postgame incident on November 2nd. The columnist wrote several inflammatory opinion pieces about Embiid’s condition, but also mentioned Embiid’s late brother Arthur and Embiid’s son. I used the name Arthur in my October 23 column. That got the 30-year-old Embiid started.
On Tuesday, Embiid was far from his dominant self. He was rusty and finished 2-of-11 from the floor, scoring 13 points in 26 minutes. Towns, his former and perhaps now former nemesis, dominated the night with 21 points and 13 rebounds. Towns finished the game for New York and Embiid sat out the final few minutes to ensure the Sixers didn’t waste more than the 25 to 30 minutes they had planned for him before the game.
Embiid then said, “You can do whatever you want in practices and scrimmages, but games are a different story.” “I will be fine.”
His words, the concerns of the franchise.
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Embiid was out of shape for most of the spring when the championship was decided after suffering an injury late in the regular season or in the playoffs. Last year, he missed two months with a meniscus injury in his left knee and suffered Bell’s palsy during Philadelphia’s series loss to the Knicks. So the Sixers and their superstar agreed to sit him out for several regular season games this season to give him the best chance to get through April and May healthy. The organization’s misrepresentation cost the Sixers $100,000, but I doubt they cared much. Embiid says it’s up to him to play, but of course that’s not really the case.
Yes, Embiid played for Team USA in the Olympics. He showed up when the United States needed him most, including a huge performance against Nikola Jokić and Serbia in the semifinals. However, that period was about two months before the start of the training camp, and the vacation period was revealed.
He missed his first five shots from the floor against New York on Tuesday and didn’t hit a field goal until a 3-pointer with nine minutes left in the third quarter. Embiid got to the line like always and made 8 of 8 free throws in the first half. However, Embiid was noticeably behind throughout the second half. He was in shorts after the first play of the second half. And while he asked the crowd to stand late in the third quarter, he couldn’t get Philadelphia on board as New York pulled away in the fourth.
“When he’s playing well, he has the ability to dominate the game on the offensive end,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said afterward. “He creates a lot of good shots for himself or a lot of defensive schemes against him, which creates a lot of easier shots for our guys. It’s part of the rhythm, it’s part of the conditioning, all that kind of stuff. He’s a great shooter. I think that will come back too.”
The Sixers must now connect their hopes of finding continuity with another new core group.
Paul George, the offseason’s top free agent signing, is just recovering from a preseason bone bruise that sidelined him for the first five games of the season. But he looked great on Tuesday. He looked like the slick scorer and facilitator the Sixers wanted, scoring a game-high 29 points. However, guard Tyrese Maxey, who played well with Embiid last season, missed three straight games due to a hamstring injury. It doesn’t give Nurse much time to evaluate who plays best with whom.
For example, Philly signed Guerschon Yabusele, who played for France at the Olympics and helped lead Les Bleus to a silver medal. He was sensuous. The Sixers were hoping he could play in a small-ball unit under center. And when Embiid went out, they watched him for a long time. In his first nine games, he shot better than 43 percent on 3-pointers at moderate volume. But now Nurse has to play Yabusele and Embiid together, and Yabusele has to play more power forwards. The shots are different. The rhythm is different. The person Yabusele is protecting on the other side is different now.
Nurse got exactly what he wanted to see late in the first quarter. Embiid returned after a few minutes off the bench, pulling two Knicks to him at the top of the key and feeding an open Yabusele on the wing for a three. But that was the only shot Yabusele hit all night in seven attempts.
Still, it’s clear how powerful the Sixers can be when Embiid returns to his old self with a healthy George and Maxey. Solid role players like Kelly Oubre Jr., Yabusele, and Caleb Martin; Jared McCain, the downright brave rookie; A cache of vets like Reggie Jackson, Kyle Lowry and Andre Drummond. If everyone is healthy, Philadelphia’s offensive potential is enormous. So the Sixers are doubly fortunate that their terrible start didn’t bury their playoff chances in the dysfunctional Eastern Conference. The Sixers entered the game Tuesday after the play-in round.
George knows the pressure Embiid is under. He was the franchise player for the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder and then the co-franchise player for the LA Clippers along with Kawhi Leonard. The weight of being a man feels like wearing a burlap jersey and concrete Nike shoes.
“I don’t think it’s a burden on him.” George said. “He is a work of art. He is a process. I think he found his way the way he should. We are here to keep things moving until he comes to his senses again. But I don’t think there’s any pressure on him to do anything more. As we learn how to play with him and around him, he will find his rhythm as the game progresses. I know he’s not far off because I’ve actually seen it.”
I asked Embiid if the urgency of a 2-8 start and the ticking of his prime was putting pressure on him to return sooner rather than more slowly through the regular season, as was the long-term plan. He reflected on his rookie season after missing two years of rehabilitation due to multiple foot surgeries. Embiid was cheered when he finished third in Rookie of the Year voting. Even though the Sixers held him out in all but one game in the second half of the season.
“We were still very competitive,” he said of the 28-54 season. “And even that year, I thought I had a chance to actually make the playoffs if they let me finish the year. So it’s urgent. But you also have to understand that we were not healthy. Everyone is coming back. Like I said, the way we’ve been on the floor (together) the last few years, I think we’ve got a pretty good chance.”
“Everything is falling apart. “The center cannot be maintained.” William Butler Yeats wrote about something completely different 100 years ago. But it’s up to Embiid here to make sure people don’t see the connection.
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(Photo: David Dow / NBAE via Getty Images)
