NEW YORK — Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid finished with 37 points and 13 rebounds, but he had only two assists despite regularly making the right plays in Saturday’s 101-98 win over the Brooklyn Nets.
It doesn’t help that Tobias Harris shot 1-for-9 and De’Anthony Melton shot 0-for-3 from the floor, and Georges Niang was 1-for-4 from deep. Those players are who Embiid relies on to help space the floor for him on the offensive end.
However, Embiid didn’t stop passing. Every time the Nets sent waves of defenders at him, the big fella continued to pass to the open man despite his teammates not being able to cash in.
“You still gotta make the right play,” said coach Doc Rivers. “Nine times out of 10, our guys will make those shots. Tonight, Georges couldn’t make it, Tobias couldn’t make it, Melt couldn’t make it, but he (Embiid) kept trusting and that’s huge for our team moving forward.”
Embiid continued to make the right decision. When it comes to this Sixers team on the offensive end, everything flows through him and James Harden so the two of them have to continue to make those passes in order for the offense to keep humming.
“I always say you can’t win 1-on-5,” said Embiid. “So even when they’re missing, I joked around with them after the game that based on — this has happened a couple of nights — but based on the last night I should have probably at least 10 assists each game, but gotta keep trusting them.”
The Nets were sending doubles to Embiid while the ball was in the air on the pass to him. He didn’t panic. He just caught the pass and then made the right play. Whether it was getting to the basket or passing to an open teammate despite the misses.
“Especially, with the way teams double,” Embiid continued. “Especially, coming on the pass every single possession, just gotta keep trusting them. I feel like I’ve been making the right play over and over. It’s gonna pay off at some point. It’s gonna be one night where we just get hot and guys just keep hitting shots whether it’s Tyrese James, Tobias, Georges, D-Melt, we’re gonna get hot at some point.”
Eventually, these open looks the shooters are getting are going to fall and that will make the Sixers even more dangerous. Either teams will have to worry about staying with Embiid or they got to get out to the shooters and that leaves the big fella with a lot less resistance.
“I just got to keep trusting them and make sure that they feel good about getting the ball and getting those shots, and it’s only gonna make my job easy,” Embiid finished. “If I can trust them and they can make those shots, then it becomes hard to double. If you got to play me one-on-one, good luck.”
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