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Tim BontempsESPN
Joel Embiid knew the situation the Philadelphia 76ers had on Tuesday night against visiting the Miami Heat.
Playing shorthand for the third game in a row and the second night in a row, and that was before the two available Philadelphia guards, Ben Simmons and Tyrese Maxey, received a foul, it would have been easy for the Sixers to pack it.
Embiid, however, had other ideas.
Thanks to a dominant second half: in which he scored 35 of his highest points of the season, 45 points to finish with 16 rebounds, four assists and five steals for a final statistical line, only Charles Barkley has equaled with a uniform of Sixers in almost half. century – Embiid was able to drag the Sixers over the finish line as they secured an overtime win by 137-134 at the Wells Fargo Center.
“It was necessary,” Embiid said of his performance, which included a stretch of 11 points in a row for the Sixers, from the tie basket with 3.3 seconds left for regulation until he hit a jumper. mid-range at 2:03 to enter overtime. “We needed her tonight.”
“We lost three games in a row. Our mentality should always be: we should never lose two games in a row, and we lost three in a row,” he explained, “so there was no chance we would go down losing four in a row.” for what I had to do and what my teammates had to do, we did it and we got the victory. “
That Philadelphia won the losing streak and returned to the winning column was largely what Embiid was doing, which didn’t seem to be about to happen at halftime. Embiid had 10 points and seven rebounds at the break, but did not participate exactly, although he did more than Simmons, who struggled powerfully after losing the previous two games with a swollen left knee. Simmons committed five rotations in the first half and finally committed a foul with five points and 12 assists to finish with six rotations in 32 minutes.
But while Simmons was fighting, Embiid came out of the rest a man possessed. Embiid scored 20 points just in the third quarter to start the game back in the direction of Philadelphia, putting the team behind him thanks in part to a slight adjustment from Sixers coach Doc Rivers to get it. him the ball at different points on the floor.
“We put him in the middle of the ground,” Rivers said, “because whenever we put him below the free throw line, until we threw him, they came from there.
“I thought [Miami] he really struggled, finding where to catch or who to catch; and it also allowed Joel to see when people caught him throwing the ball, so it’s a good fit. “
“[But] he wanted that match for us tonight, “the coach said of Embiid.
This was especially true once Simmons and Maxey committed a foul. Embiid had the ball in his hands virtually every trip down the court after that, with Rivers essentially deploying it as a center point.
Rivers said the Sixers ran essentially the same play – called “Delay,” one Philly had only installed Tuesday morning on the run by chance – out of necessity for most of the fourth quarter and overtime because the punctual guards made a foul.
“Sometimes life is luck,” Rivers said laughing. “We were laughing on the bench. … It’s amazing. We work on it today and then we end up being a savior.”
Meanwhile, Embiid was very happy with the opportunity to have the ball in his hands.
“I’m playing center, goalie or whatever you want to call it, I’m enjoying it,” he said. “It’s been working well.”
For Embiid, who has never been shy about making his feelings known, perhaps part of that rise in the second half comes from a place of frustration with the NBA for having made the Sixers continued to play in short hands. This was the third game in a row in which the Sixers fell into several key components after a series of players entered league safety and health protocols after Seth Curry tested positive last week in Brooklyn.
After the NBA postponed the Heat game against the Boston Celtics on Sunday – a day after the Sixers had only seven healthy players available to lose at home to the Denver Nuggets – Embiid tweeted, “THEY HATE THE PROCESS,” in which he could be perceived as a shot in the NBA for not doing the same with his team the day before.
Asked after Tuesday’s game if Philly should have been playing, Embiid didn’t hesitate to answer.
“No,” he said. “It looks like all the other games are canceled. But I guess the league keeps making us play. There’s no other explanation behind it, especially that Denver game, when we had to dress up an injured player just to make sure we had enough players to be able to compete, while other teams that haven’t had as many players and the league haven’t had any of them wear an injured player, just to make sure there’s a game in play.
“So it’s unfortunate, but he’s the next man. You can’t complain about that. Victories keep counting, losses still count; we have to win all those victories. We have to keep fighting until these guys come back, and that’s work “.
Another motivating point for Embiid this season has been to sideline last year’s All-NBA teams. Embiid expressed his vocation to believe he deserved to be named one of the top three centers in the league and was motivated to prove that people were wrong to leave him out this season.
After Tuesday’s game, Embiid now averages more than 26 points and 12 rebounds per game so far this campaign. And when asked if he’s still getting the motivation for last season’s awards, he said yes, though he added that he’ll take care of himself as long as the Sixers continue to win this season.
“It is, but that’s not what I’m concentrating on,” he said. “The main goal is to win a championship. When it comes to individual prizes, it can’t happen unless you win matches. So the main thing that worries me is to win.
“Because at the end of the day, if I win, if we win and get the first seed, there’s no reason you know I shouldn’t be in MVP, defensive player of the year conversations, NBA first team and all that. “
“It all goes back to the same thing: winning,” he added. “But the main goal is to win the championship; we try to prepare for what is to come, the playoffs and [getting] up to this level. So like I said, everything wins again. “