In short run, options in absence of Embiid
PHILADELPHIA >> The tear in the meniscus of Joel Embiid’s right knee is slight, not enough for an immediate operating-room visit, just messy enough to cause him to miss a game.
Or two.
A week, perhaps. Three weeks, if the prescribed physical therapy doesn’t prove therapeutic. But he will be back with the Sixers sometime. “I don’t know when,” Doc Rivers said Wednesday.
After all those years, all those managed loads, all of Brett Brown’s planning to land the plane in the playoffs and all that assurance that Embiid had never been in better shape, that’s where the Sixers were before Game 5 of a playoff series against the Washington Wizards. The Process, the human M-V-P chant, the most talented player ever to play for the franchise, was unavailable for a get-away game.
“It’s tough,” Rivers said. “He’s done such a great job. You look at his body. Right now, he couldn’t be in better shape. You see the tone. You see the play. For this to
happen at this point after going through the year is very difficult. But he’s hanging in there.”
Embiid is hanging in there, and the Sixers have that capability, too. They are deep in scorers, in veterans, in coaching wisdom and defenders. From the beginning, they were gifted enough to win the one-vs.-eight series against Washington, with or without any particular player, their MVP finalist included.
But the Sixers are not at the win-a-first-round-series point in their developmental arc. Indeed, the whole repugnant idea behind the shameful rebuilding process was to be anything, and that means anything, but a team good enough to win a series and declare satisfaction. Better they should have a 10-win season than win one miserable playoff series. That has been their dogma.
Fortunately for the Sixers, the timing of Embiid’s injury was not catastrophic. They had a 3-0 lead in a best-of-seven in a league where such a balloon had never been popped. Embiid missed the final three quarters of Game 4 Monday, was off Tuesday and Wednesday and won’t work Thursday. The Sixers insist he is day-to-day and likely to respond to therapy. As if to spread that message, Embiid strolled onto the floor about 45 minutes before the game Wednesday for his usual pregame shooting obligations, sporting no apparent knee brace or limp and confidently swishing shots.
The early-arriving fans applauded the show.
“From what I’d seen before I got here, this team had won plenty of games with Joel out,” George Hill said. “We just have to go with the next-man-up mentality. We’ve got to keep them off the boards and we have to play a complete ballgame.”
The Sixers played 21 games without Embiid in the regular season, winning 10, including nine of their last 15. But the tanka-razzi long ago had been dismissed, so it’s to the point of the season where competing without vital players is a risk, not a sports-science luxury. And the competition level has risen to the point where the Sixers can win the occasional game without Embiid, but not nine out of every 15.
So, the Sixers and their fans are keeping vigil, waiting for Embiid to return, aware that he often needs lengthy recuperation time, during which he might need to let his belt out a notch. And not that the Sixers would be so slowed by a few extra Embiid pounds that they will be anything but comfortable Round 2 favorites, but Rivers will be hesitant to play him if he doesn’t believe he is in anything but fighting shape.
“I don’t think we will put him out on the floor if we don’t feel like he would give us a pretty good effort,” the coach said. “Hopefully, that will be for another day.”
As for Wednesday, Rivers replaced Embiid in his starting lineup with Matisse Thybulle, effectively shifting Ben Simmons to a center role. Until Embiid returns, Rivers can add to the workload of presumptive Hall of Fame center Dwight Howard, or give Mike Scott a few more shifts.
The short-term solutions are plentiful. And Embiid’s injury doesn’t seem like a long-term crisis.
“Obviously, playing a playoff game without Joel is not planned,” Rivers said. “But it’s real. And we have to deal with it. Everybody has to do their part, and nobody has to feel like they have to do Joel’s part. If we do that, we’ll be fine.”
They will be fine, but without Embiid, they will not be great in a year when nothing else will do.
“I can just tell you he is willing to go through anything it takes to get back on the floor,” Rivers said. “He’s a warrior. And if there is a way for him to get back on the floor, he will find his way.” He always does. Eventually.