Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Red-hot Sixers keep rolling to 50th win
PHILADELPHIA » Joel Embiid ran into Markelle Fultz, cracked his face, and left a game. And the Sixers won.
Then they won without him in Atlanta. And in Charlotte. And without him, they clobbered Brooklyn. Then they won in Detroit. The other night, they stared down Cleveland and won, without Embiid, to move into third place in the East. Sunday, it was the Mavericks’ turn to be outclassed, and the Embiid-less Sixers obliged, winning 109-97.
The Sixers have a 14-game winning streak, half of that without Embiid on the court at the end.
“We’re doing it,” Brett Brown said, “with a little different kind of style.”
So, he was asked, what happens when Embiid is ready to play again? “You use Joel Embiid.” Of course. Naturally. It wasn’t a trick question. There are reasons the Sixers are winning without Embiid.
Near the top is that the NBA has become such a dramatic example of Haves and Mav-nots, that they usually have the better team anyway. But that was Cleveland they beat the other night, and that was LeBron James running up a 44-spot. And that was Ben Simmons as the focal point, and that was a more dramatic use of the three-point shot, and that was a faster, looser offense the Sixers were playing.
They didn’t beat Cleveland because the crowd was lively, or because they were hot, or even because the Cavs were creaky in the second end of a back-to-back. They won because their style was able to inflate a 30-point lead, a style that works for the talent they have, an example of why Brown should be the Coach of the Year.
“It’s not entirely different than what we had been doing,” Brown said. “We continue to share. We continue to play fast. We continue to embrace the three-point shot. Everything has been notched up a little bit more since Joel hasn’t been with us. But this is what we are. This is the style of basketball that we’ve tried to play since I’ve been here.
“We’ve talked about that all year. And when he does come back and, sometimes what playoff basketball does to the game anyways, I don’t see it being a problem of morphing the two and trying to grab the best of both worlds.”
And there it was, slipped into the conversation, a hint that something valuable for the Sixers may have risen while Fultz was knocking Embiid down: The availability of an alternative look, one that could complicate what already is going to be a massive matchup problem for opposing coaches.
Embiid, an All-Star Game starter, will be necessary to any Sixers’ postseason success. But if they had to go without him for a while, and it has been whispered that he is unavailable from time to time, they at least have a second option.
Already doing some cardio work, Embiid Monday will begin serious sports-science physical preparation for the playoffs. Unlike in previous situations when his availability was trusted to them, the on-site brainiacs will be responsible for preparing Embiid for instant postseason readiness. The Sixers have championship potential. But one game in one series can make the difference between a long run and one of those inand-out postseasons that The Process was designed to prevent.
If anything, Embiid’s late-season sick-calls to recover from a concussion and busted orbital bone could have a load-management benefit, to borrow the club’s nonsensical phrase. Weren’t the Sixers looking to give him a lateseason rest anyway?
“I wish I had him,” Brown said, burying that idea. “Is there a silver lining to this? No. Is it all doom and gloom? No. If I had my choice, I would want him playing basketball with his team and not missing any games.
“We will find a way to take a very unfortunate situation and make it as good as we can. The team is playing well. It is a different style of basketball. Might this be a way where he can get an un-planned rest? Possibly. But if you gave me a choice, it isn’t even close. We wish he was with us.”
Even in the victory over the Cavs, as important a regular-season message as any his team has delivered in his five years, Brown knew it would have been less stressful if his team had its best player, too.
“There were so many times in that Cleveland game where you could see where he could change that game from a defensive standpoint, to who guards him at a lowpost standpoint,” Brown said. “But he is in a good place, in his mind and physically.”
So are the Sixers, who won their 50th game Sunday, keeping that third-seed status for another day.
They are in a good place without Embiid.
They will be in a better place when he returns.
“I don’t know if anybody really looked at him the other night on the bench,” Brown said. “He looks awesome. He looks trim. He’s in good spirits. He’s in a good place.
“And he sure loves seeing his team win.”
And, unexpectedly or not, win, and win, and win, and win.