BOSTON — The Philadelphia 76ers pulled off a very impressive, 119-115, victory over the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals despite missing Joel Embiid due to a sprained LCL in his right knee.
They gained great production from up and down the roster, led by 45 points from James Harden. However, the Sixers would obviously like to have Embiid back on the floor. The big fella makes such a difference on both ends of the floor, and he is going to be the one that decides their playoff fate.
As the team gets ready for Game 2 on Wednesday, Embiid did get some work done on the off day. However, the Sixers still are not sure of his status for Wednesday.
“There’s no change in his status,” coach Doc Rivers said. “I’m assuming it’s doubtful — I don’t know what the words are, but they haven’t changed if I’m being honest, but he’s working out. He’s over there with some of our guys right now, and I’ll get the report when he gets back. The fact that he’s doing that is a step forward for sure.”
One would assume that because the Sixers won Game 1 and earned at least a split in Boston, they would have an incentive to rest Embiid one more game. Rivers said that isn’t the case at all.
“It’s just health-based,” he stated. “If he can play, he plays. If he can’t, he can’t. If it’s 50/50, we would probably err on the other side because we’ve done that all year. We’re not gonna take any chances.”
In terms of what kind of work Embiid was getting done on Tuesday, it was on getting up and down the floor.
“We’re just doing some skeleton work,” the coach explained. “Meaning running through our shell offense and doing it up and down a couple times and seeing how he does and how he fares.”
Embiid hasn’t played in a game since April 20 in Game 3 of the first round. It will be a challenge to throw him out there in the middle of a playoff series against the Celtics and see how he holds up in terms of his conditioning.
“He has done some pool work, but it’s just not basketball,” Rivers said. “At the end of the day, even our guys, I thought yesterday (Game 1), even though we had a whole week off from playing, I thought the first five minutes of the game, we were gassed.”
The intensity of playoff basketball is unmatched and an Embiid return means Rivers will likely have to change his rotation up a bit to get him some rest.
“If you don’t play playoff basketball for a week and they’re flying, you’re exhausted so when he does come back and that’s Game 2, Game 3, he’s gonna be tired and we’re gonna have to monitor that as well,” Rivers finished. “That’s gonna be a new thing to throw in probably our substitutions, our rotations would have to change with him.”
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