CAMDEN, N.J. — The Philadelphia 76ers are faced with the challenge of winning games without Joel Embiid. The big fella must undergo a procedure to repair a meniscus injury in his left knee, and he is expected to miss an extended period.
The Sixers are 4-10 without Embiid on the season, but they remain confident that they can win games without the reigning league MVP. They believe they have players capable of stepping up and getting the job done without him.
It’s a matter of going out there and doing it.
“You got to figure it out,” said KJ Martin. “I mean, he’s the reigning MVP. Obviously, he’s a big part of what we’re doing and stuff like that, but at the end of the day, we’re all still NBA players and you got to be prepared if guys go down. We just got to play.”
Embiid was averaging 35.3 points per game, and the Sixers relied on him to do so much for this group nightly. At this point, Philadelphia has to hope it can stay afloat until he returns — if he returns.
“You can’t replace Jo,” added Jaden Springer. “He’s the MVP. That’s Joel Embiid, but I feel like we all got the same mindset, and we’re gonna go out there and compete with each other and give it all we got. We feel like we’re capable of beating anybody. So going out there playing hard and playing the right way. I feel like we’ll be just fine.”
Every team has a “next man up” mentality. However, there is no emergency plan for losing an MVP like Embiid.
“Obviously, it’s unfortunate,” Martin added. “We all want him to get back healthy as quick as possible, but we don’t want him to rush back and not be fully healthy and injure his knee even more so you got to figure it out. Guys got to step up and that’s what it is at the end of the day.”
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