PHILADELPHIA–The Philadelphia 76ers are missing their starting backcourt at the moment as James Harden continues to recover from a right foot tendon strain and they are now dealing with the injury to Tyrese Maxey in Friday’s win over the Milwaukee Bucks.
Despite missing those two important pieces, Philadelphia had a lot of success when they ran their offense through Joel Embiid. The big fella had 32 points and 11 rebounds, but the biggest number is the eight assists as he continues to be a bit of a quarterback while out on the floor.
During Philadelphia’s 3-game winning streak, the big focus has been Embiid’s high-scoring numbers, but he is averaging 7.3 assists during those games and he wants the ball to flow through him more on the offensive end.
“It should be like that every night,” said Embiid. “That’s how we should be playing. I should be aggressive. I want the ball, not to score, but to make sure that I get everybody involved. Myself, my teammates, because I believe that when I have the ball, there’s so much attention being created and, I can make my teammates’ lives easier.”
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At the end of the day, this is Embiid’s team. Even when Harden does return, they have to be able to put their trust in the big fella that he will make the right decisions. He did so in a big way on Friday and plans on continuing to do so even when the guards return.
“It’s been like that the past few games,” he added. “It doesn’t matter when they come back. It’s got to keep going offensively and defensively.”
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