PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers are missing a certain big man who is also the reigning league MVP. Joel Embiid is out until at least March as the Sixers continue to wait and see when the big fella can return.
In the meantime, the Sixers have had to turn to Paul Reed and Mo Bamba to fill in for Embiid. Reed has gotten the starting role while Bamba has stepped into the backup role.
Dealing with a right knee injury of his own, Bamba has been trying to push through pain to help the Sixers without Embiid. He had four blocks off the bench in Friday’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks, but had a large ice pack on his right knee in the locker room afterward.
“It’s tough,” Bamba told Sixers Wire of his knee injury. “It’s just adversity. Something I have to get through. I’d be lying if I said it isn’t bothering me, but looking around the locker room, we have guys who are out, and I just try to do my part just by being available and just sacrifice my body for the team.”
With the Sixers on the second night of a back-to-back on Saturday against the Washington Wizards, Bamba has been ruled out due to right knee soreness, but the fact he is still fighting through pain to try to help the Sixers is a big help.
Without Embiid, his mindset is to just do the little things to do his best to help the team.
“Gotta step up,” he added. “It’s part of the reason why I wanted to come here is because I knew Jo — especially, with his history and his injuries — I knew that he wasn’t gonna play all 82 games and that it was gonna take all of us. It’s gonna be by committee, but my mindset is just to go out there and just dominate the simple. Don’t go out there and make any home run plays. Just hit singles. We got guys who can go put up numbers as far as scoring and just make their job easier.”
The Sixers will certainly miss Bamba’s ability to swat shots against the Wizards, but he will likely return on Monday when the Sixers take on the Cleveland Cavaliers. Philadelphia will need his size against Cleveland’s big men.
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