The Philadelphia 76ers once again fell flat on Saturday night on the road. They never had a lead and once Ben Simmons left with a back injury, their chances to win went from slim to none.
Why is it that way, though? This team is not just Ben Simmons. That’s where Joel Embiid has to come in and back up his statement that he is the best player in the world and lead this team to a win.
Instead, he had another rough night scoring 17 points on 5-for-18 shooting in a blowout loss where they trailed by as many as 25. This comes after he shot just 6-for-26 in the team’s previous game in Milwaukee on February 6. Without Simmons, he needs to do more like he did against the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday.
“We never got in a rhythm,” said Embiid. “Losing Ben, that was a big moment of the game and then foul trouble, not making shots and some shots and some calls that could have gone different ways. It’s on us. I still feel like we played hard. Shots couldn’t fall. We missed a lot of easy ones. I missed a lot of easy ones. I didn’t shoot that I should have. I felt like I had it, but I didn’t show it. It’s on me.”
It absolutely is all on him. Going into Milwaukee and winning is a tall task, to begin with, and losing Simmons did not help the situation, but that is where Embiid has to give more. This team goes as he and Simmons go and they need to lead the way for this team.
You look over at the Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo is leading the way with 31 points, 18 rebounds, and eight assists. Of course, he had help with Khris Middleton pouring in 25 points, but Embiid did not have that benefit on this night.
Also, once again, the defense did not travel. Philadelphia came out slow defensively to start both the game and the half. They were only down by six points at halftime and it then turned into a deficit of 20.
“There’s always room for improvement,” the big man added. “We can always do a better job. In the first half, we started pretty bad and then we got it going in the second quarter. I felt like going into the game we had a good mindset, everybody was focused. I was pretty confident going into the game and obviously losing bad wasn’t good.”
The Sixers return home on Monday to face the Atlanta Hawks before heading out on the road again on Wednesday. Luckily, it is only against the hapless Cleveland Cavaliers so that should give them a fighting chance with or without Simmons. [lawrence-related id=26297,26290,26265]