The Philadelphia 76ers received some tough news on Monday when they found out that they would be losing Joel Embiid for a little while after he became the fourth Sixer to enter the health and safety protocols.
They certainly missed him in their loss to the New York Knicks at home where they were very shorthanded against a pretty physical Knicks team. They were down by as many as 19 points before rallying, but it was not enough as they just did not have enough to get it done.
Losing Embiid is a shock to any team who loses their best player for a little while, but for the Sixers, they didn’t know if it was true or not. Embiid is known for playing around and being a jokester and his teammates were not sure if it was serious or not.
“It was shocking,” Seth Curry laughed. “Yeah, you never know if Jo’s serious or not. It’s unfortunate.”
Backup big man Andre Drummond, who had 14 points and 25 rebounds in a start, shared Curry’s reaction: “I thought it was a joke.”
The good thing is, Drummond is more than capable of filling in for Embiid until he returns. At 28-years old, he may be in his 10th season in the league, but he was a starter for the entirety of his career before coming to Philadelphia to be a backup. He has played heavy minutes before so this should not be too much for him to handle after playing 38 minutes on Monday.
“You forgot I did that for 10 years?” Drummond stated when asked if he can handle the heavy workload. “[Expletive], this is my first year coming off the bench. Nothing changed. I can do it. I didn’t just lose the ability to play basketball just because I come off the bench. Me playing 40 minutes isn’t gonna change today, tomorrow, or next week. I’m here to play in whatever role they need me to play in.”
The Sixers will now move on to host the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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