The Philadelphia 76ers had to face the Utah Jazz on Monday night shorthanded after losing Joel Embiid prior to tipoff due to his troublesome back. They almost had to go into the game without their backup center as well.
Dwight Howard was close to not playing in Monday’s game due to a death in the family. Coach Doc Rivers revealed after the game that Howard was playing with a heavy heart in Monday’s loss in Utah.
“Dwight had a very long, tough day today,” said Rivers. “He had a death in the family, didn’t come to shootaround, didn’t even show up to the arena till 5:30/6:00. I assumed he wasn’t playing. It’s funny, I told him he didn’t have to play and he said ‘coach I just want to get on the floor. It’s better than just sitting around the room’ and I thought he was phenomenal.”
Howard had 14 points and 12 rebounds in 26 minutes off the bench in one of his more productive games of the season. He had been having a tough stretch of games, but this seemed to be a bit of a breakout for him.
“I just thought he was great,” said Tobias Harris. “It just shows the type of teammate that Dwight is. I don’t know exactly everything. Obviously, he was playing with a heavy heart out there tonight. So, it’s the ultimate amount of respect for him and we’re here for him as a team to uplift him and make sure that he’s in good spirits and he’s OK.”
It goes to show Howard’s leadership skills on this team. He could have easily just sat this one out and nobody would have blamed him either. It’s tough to play after an event like that and it is something that can endear himself to the rest of his teammates.
“It just shows who he is as a person,” Harris added. “He’s an amazing leader and somebody who cares about the team and cares about helping us win and that just showed in him just going out to play. Not many of us thought he was going to play either.”
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