TORONTO — After the Philadelphia 76ers took a loss in the opener to the Milwaukee Bucks on the road, they needed a bounce back. They didn’t want to drop to 0-2 before the home opener on Sunday.
Joel Embiid, who had a tough night in the opener with seven turnovers, made sure the Sixers found a way.
The reigning league MVP asserted himself with 34 points on 14-for-21 shooting, nine rebounds and eight assists with only one turnover to lead the Sixers to a 114-107 win over the Toronto Raptors on the road.
“It’s the second game, really. Preseason,” Embiid said afterward. “Knocking off the rust. It was the first game of the season, so I was being extremely passive trying to go through the offense. That’s a big reason I had seven turnovers.”
The Raptors, despite being led by a new coach in Darko Rajakovic, still sent the same aggressive double teams toward him as they did when Nick Nurse was leading the way. Embiid wasn’t fazed as he made sure to make the right decisions and run the offense for Philadelphia.
“I just took my time,” Embiid said. “They doubled pretty quick, but I was more aggressive. Just catching the ball and going quick. I was making the right plays and just kept the game simple, but it’s the beginning of the season. I can’t get too high, can’t get too low. Sometimes, you have good nights, sometimes you don’t. It’s all about staying balanced.”
Joel Embiid on the difference for him tonight compared to the opener in Milwaukee #Sixers pic.twitter.com/zKPD1KxUGQ
— Ky Carlin (@Ky_Carlin) October 29, 2023
On the other end, Embiid had two blocks as he did a terrific job of protecting the rim and making sure the Sixers were solid on that end of the floor. He had a key block late on Raptors forward Scottie Barnes that essentially sealed the game for Philadelphia.
“He did a great job at the rim,” Nurse said of Embiid. “I think we got some goals for him and one’s to be much more of a rim protector and affect some misses there. I thought he did a really good job of that tonight. He came up with some, I don’t know what he got officially for blocks, I don’t really care. I know he changed a lot of shots and made them miss a lot.”
Embiid only had one turnover after coughing the ball up seven times in the opener against the Bucks. He was much more dynamic in this one to help the Sixers get on the board.
“I thought he did more dominant things offensively,” Nurse added. “He got it in there deep and drove the ball and did some things and he was, again, really decisive on some of the double teams. Like he really got it and fired it to a hard-cutting player or open shooter. He only had one or two bad possessions on that when I think he got tangled up a little bit, but other that, he was just assertive in everything he was doing.”
At the end of the day, Embiid did what MVPs do. He made sure his team avoided an 0-2 start.
“I didn’t wanna go 0-2 to start the season,” Embiid finished. “We had a tough one last game. Obviously, some missed calls, and we got down 0-1. Tonight, we wanted to make sure we evened it out and tried to get the win. They jumped on us. They started off hot from 3, but we stayed together, we made adjustments, and we got better.”
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