CAMDEN, N.J. — For the first time in a month, Joel Embiid was available for the 76ers Tuesday night.
Embiid missed 15 games with first a left foot strain, then swelling in the left knee that was surgically repaired a year ago this week. But he’s been practicing for the last few weeks and was cleared Tuesday by coach Nick Nurse to take part in Tuesday’s game against the Dallas Mavericks.
It seemed the right decision as Embiid scored 29 points and helped the Sixers hold on for a 118-116 victory.
It’s just the 14th game of the season for Embiid, who was averaging 24.4 points and 7.9 rebounds per game. The 76ers have played well without him lately, a four-game winning streak ending with consecutive narrow losses to Denver and Boston.
Nurse said Monday that all of his players, save for the season-ending injury of Jared McCain, practiced. Andre Drummond (toe) was ruled out Tuesday, as was Eric Gordon, the latter for a second straight game with left knee soreness. Kyle Lowry wasn’t on the injury list Monday but ended up missing the Mavericks game with right hip soreness. Paul George was missing his fifth straight game with a pinkie tendon strain.
• • •
Whenever Nurse gets a full deck to play with, he’ll face a challenge, albeit a fortuitous one. The 76ers are doing a lot of things well at the moment, getting contributions from a bevy of depth guys. That can’t all be thrown out the window when Embiid, George and company return. Tactically, given the high level of play they’ve achieved without them, it’s not worth scrapping the whole endeavor to let Embiid and George take over, especially offensively.
“We have to continue to execute some of the things that have been so good to us around the offense,” Nurse said. “A lot of that stuff has been created in their absence, but we’re finding it very useful, and we’ve got to integrate that. I think it’d be silly not to keep that stuff, but integrating it isn’t just a snap of the fingers.”
One of the lenses to view the reintegration of the veterans is pace. The 76ers are 28th in the league in possessions per game. That’s risen into the top 20 in the last six games, especially driven by Ricky Council and the second backcourt pairing of Lowry and Reggie Jackson.
They won’t play at that speed consistently with Embiid. But speeding things up more often has proven beneficial.
“I think the confidence level that that group’s been playing with … it lends itself to the pace,” Nurse said. “You can just see so many more, longer outlets, longer throw-aheads, confidence to attack in the open floor, those kind of things. I think we need to look ahead and play ahead when there’s opportunities there.”
• • •
With the Sixers down to an eight-man rotation against Boston Sunday without Gordon, Justin Edwards and Kelly Oubre bore the brunt of the duty. Edwards played a career-high 44 minutes, with 12 points and seven rebounds, plus the duty of chasing around the Celtics’ All-Star corps of wings in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
“I came in early, did my normal treatment. I was joking around, like, I’m going to dunk my whole body in the ice bath. But I really might go do that,” Edwards said Monday. “I learned, and this is my first experience, so I’m just going to do what I can to get ready for tomorrow.”
Nurse explained how little recourse he had, continually looking down the bench for more wings when all he had were Edwards, Council and Oubre.
“We had three point guards and a couple of bigs,” Nurse said. “… I kept saying, do we have any more wings down there? And they’re saying, Justin needs to come out, he’s getting tired. It was just like, he’s just got to keep going. We’ve just got to keep playing. But give those guys credit. They kept fighting.”
Edwards has played 20 or more minutes in each of the 76ers’ last 12 games. The undrafted Imhotep product by way of Kentucky has proven he belongs at this level.
“Just being positive,” he said. “I feel like that’s the best thing I’ve learned. Off at Kentucky, I was really negative with myself, and that kind of played a toll on me mentally. So I’ve learned how to be more patient and positive with myself.”
Source: Berkshire mont
Be First to Comment