PHILADELPHIA–The Philadelphia 76ers welcomed star big man Joel Embiid back to the floor on Monday when they played host to the Atlanta Hawks. The big fella had missed four games in a row due to a left mid-foot sprain and the Sixers were able to win three of those games.
As Embiid made his return, the Sixers leaned on the superstar big man to lead the way and he did so in a 104-101 win over the Hawks. The star leader had 30 points on 9-for-18 shooting with eight rebounds and seven assists and he made a huge defensive play late to break up a lob by Atlanta looking to take a late lead.
Afterward, coach Doc Rivers and the rest of the Sixers assessed Embiid’s play and the big fella opened up about the pain he was in after he suffered the injury on Nov. 19 against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
“It’s been hard,” said Embiid. “I’ll say probably the following two days after I got hurt, because I was extremely worried about what it might have been because I couldn’t walk. I was just happy that it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was and I wasn’t able to miss a lot of time.”