Philadelphia 76ers superstar Joel Embiid has not had many rough games in the 2020-21 season. He has constantly thrown the Sixers on his back in most games to make sure they come away with a win and that is why he in the running for the MVP conversation.
On Friday, he had one of those clunker games as he scored only 14 points and he shot just 5-for-16 from the floor in a loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. He also only pulled down nine rebounds as well as even that is a really low number.
A really concerning stat in this one is the lack of free throws. The big fella only took four of them compared to the 20 he took on Tuesday against the Boston Celtics. All four of those free throws came in the first quarter and he did not get another trip to the line the rest of the way as he seemed to settle against Steven Adams.
“I think we just settled, most of the night,” said coach Doc Rivers. “On Joel’s part, I was really upset at our team in the first quarter we get two early fouls on Adams, I think we went five minutes with Adams off the floor, and a 6-foot-9 guy guarding Joel, I had to call a timeout for us to get the ball to Joel. That should never happen and it did tonight. I just keep going back to we were a very mentally weak team.”
Settling is a big word in this loss. The Sixers really seemed to just accept that they could not get in the paint and Adams was a big roadblock down there. Embiid even seemed to not want to challenge Adams at all and he also settled for jumpers rather than attack the basket.
There was one moment where the big fella did fall awkwardly and he was grabbing at his troublesome knee. He had just come back from a 10-game absence due to a bone bruise in that left knee and considering Philadelphia has to go to Oklahoma City to take on the Thunder on Saturday, they might be missing the big fella.
“All plans were to play Joel tomorrow, but he fell awkwardly,” said Rivers. “Now, we will have to wait and see.”
Embiid was out on the floor putting up shots after the loss so maybe that means that he is fine. He will just have to wait and see if he is ready to go.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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