The Philadelphia 76ers welcomed Joel Embiid back to the lineup on Friday night after he missed a game to contact tracing protocols, but they then lost him again in the third quarter of their win over the Washington Wizards due to a knee injury.
The Sixers were still able to win the game thanks largely in part to Embiid’s efforts before the injury, but as well as their bench unit.
Dwight Howard came in and provided six points and 10 rebounds and Tony Bradley also had six points and three rebounds in his nine minutes of play. The fact that the Sixers can turn to Howard as well as Bradley if Embiid is to miss significant time is a big help.
“Obviously, Joel is MVP of the league,” said coach Doc Rivers. “But having Tony and Dwight and Vincent (Poirier), having Mike Scott’s ability to play the 5. Hopefully, if Joel’s out at any point, we can hold the fort.”
One thing is for sure, if Embiid is to miss time, Howard will be ready to step in right away and produce, as will Bradley. The two of them combined for 32 points and 17 rebounds in Thursday’s win over the Chicago Bulls and they played well again on Friday.
They just have to keep it pushing.
“When you just look at his body of work through his whole career and kind of how he recreated his game in his last two years in the league, Dwight’s a great leader for our team,” said Tobias Harris. “There’s a lot of things that he does behind the scenes in team meetings and team get-togethers and in the huddles that is always encouraging guys.”
Howard, especially, has a bit of an up and down season when it comes to his consistency, but he is a guy who brings a lot of energy and positivity to the floor. At this point, he just needs to be able to keep his head high and keep going forward.
“The last few games, you’re just seeing all that come together and he’s been playing great basketball for us and he has been all year,” Harris added. “That’s just really what we expect of him. Even in the Chicago game, we’re out there watching I was like ‘dang like this is, this is like primetime Dwight right now that we’re seeing’ so it’s great to see.”
The Sixers do have a day off on Saturday to figure things out before hosting the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday, but if Embiid can’t go, it is nice to have reinforcements.
“It’s a long season so at the end of the day, hopefully it’s not something where we lose him, obviously,” said Rivers. “Our guys will be good, we’ll be ready.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01eqbvq570kgj8vfs7 image=https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
[lawrence-related id=43473,43469,43465]