Doc Rivers, Sixers assess the return of Joel Embiid in win over Hawks
PHILADELPHIA–The Philadelphia 76ers welcomed star big man Joel Embiid back to the floor on Monday when they played host to the Atlanta Hawks. The big fella had missed four games in a row due to a left mid-foot sprain and the Sixers were able to win three of those games.
As Embiid made his return, the Sixers leaned on the superstar big man to lead the way and he did so in a 104-101 win over the Hawks. The star leader had 30 points on 9-for-18 shooting with eight rebounds and seven assists and he made a huge defensive play late to break up a lob by Atlanta looking to take a late lead.
Afterward, coach Doc Rivers and the rest of the Sixers assessed Embiid’s play and the big fella opened up about the pain he was in after he suffered the injury on Nov. 19 against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
“It’s been hard,” said Embiid. “I’ll say probably the following two days after I got hurt, because I was extremely worried about what it might have been because I couldn’t walk. I was just happy that it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was and I wasn’t able to miss a lot of time.”
Rivers on Embiid
“I thought he was good. I thought he was almost trying too much to get everybody involved, which is what we want, but we want to get him involved, too. He’s pretty good and so I thought as the game went on, he warmed up to that, and trying to find the right mix.”
Tobias Harris on Embiid
“He was great. I mean, obviously, just his presence and his dominance is huge for our whole group. I thought, really, he did a great job of just involving everybody in the game. Seven assists is huge, and his ability to take over games, especially in the fourth quarter, is big for us and he just did awesome and we’re excited to have him back. We would’ve loved to have him back earlier, but it was good to just get him back for tonight.”
Shake Milton on his two-man game with Embiid
“I think it was just a flow of the game. The way the defense was playing us. We were able to get into some of that elbow pick-and-roll stuff. Get Jo in his sweet spot and it ended up working out for us. I think there was just a concerted effort overall to just move the ball and we continued that tonight.”
