New team, more stars, same story: Sixers still can’t solve life without Joel Embiid
The Sixers need Embiid healthy for the long haul. Desperately so. That much was obvious in their first game without him, a 106-93 loss to the Pistons on Sunday night.
Give Joel Embiid credit for lobbying to be out there.
Give his bosses even more credit for not listening.
The 76ers need Embiid healthy for the long haul. Desperately so. That much was obvious in their first game without him, a 106-93 loss to the Pistons on Sunday night. It was a scheduled breather for Embiid. But it was also a stress test, and the Sixers very much failed it, in every phase of the game. Head coach Nick Nurse has little choice but to cling to the hope that two-way player Tacko Fall can offer a semblance of a solution as he nears a return from a quad strain. Maybe Dominick Barlow (back) and Jabari Walker (knee), too.
» READ MORE: Shorthanded Sixers suffer their first loss of the season, 106-93, to the Pistons
“It’s been a little bit of a concern,” Nurse said. “We’ve had a bunch of different people in that haven’t really solidified. I think it’s a work in progress a little bit. I hope it settles down a little.”
At the moment, though, the reality is one Nurse and his predecessors know quite well. Their only contingency plan for an extended absence by Embiid is to hope that there isn’t one.
Was it fun to see LeBron James in the midcourt circle for the opening tip? Sure. Fun is one word you could use. Another: disconcerting. Still another: ominous.
While James won the tip against former Sixer Paul Reed, it was the only thing that went right in the game’s opening minutes. The Pistons played as if they’d been waiting to pounce since the starting lineups were announced. They are a team uniquely situated to take advantage of a void in the middle, with a forward-sized point guard in Cade Cunningham, a best-in-class sharpshooter in Duncan Robinson, and plenty of athleticism in the dunker spots in John Collins and Reed. The formula was formulaic by the end of the Pistons’ 20-4 run to open the game: get to the spot where Embiid would normally be, and watch the Sixers’ defense and rebounding disintegrate.
Detroit did not execute this strategy with a particularly high degree of efficiency or beauty. Neither was needed. Embiid’s absence was enough to ensure that volume would eventually pay off. The Pistons scored a couple of early buckets on putbacks, one of them a put-back by Reed of his own miss, which followed his offensive rebound of a Robinson miss. They finished the night with 24 second-chance points, a number that somehow managed to understate the reality on the ground.
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None of this is new. I don’t need to tell you that. The Sixers have spent the entirety of the Embiid Era attempting — and mostly failing — to survive the minutes he is not on the court. The greatest testament to Embiid’s impact has always been his absence.
What is new is the realization that the old rules apply even when Jaylen Brown and LeBron are on the team.
There are qualifiers, sure. The game never felt like a scheduled loss the way it previously would have. In fact, given how poorly the Pistons played, a win was very much in the range of potential outcomes. The Sixers cut their deficit to as little as four early in the fourth quarter. They shot 7-for-27 from three-point range and 14-of-23 from the foul line in a game they lost by 13.
Previous versions of the Sixers would not have played the Pistons even from the second quarter on. They would not have coalesced down the stretch to keep the Pistons’ ballhandlers and cutters largely out of the paint. They would not have forced Cunningham to settle for low-percentage shots as consistently as they did in the second half. They did not have Dean Wade, the offseason signee who brings a rare combination of length, strength and lateral agility.
“The first half, we had so many fouls, so it was hard. We guarded the ball way better,” said guard Tyrese Maxey, who spent much of the first half in foul trouble. “We knew what we were doing coverage wise. That was a group we hadn’t played with so we weren’t 100% sure if Dean and ‘Bron were switching on everything on some possessions. But we’ll clean it up.”
» READ MORE: Adem Bona provided a spark, but Sixers’ small-ball experiment struggled without Joel Embiid
It is too early to pinpoint the optimal version of the Sixers without Embiid. But it is very clear how much better they are with him. Which is a good thing. As long as they play the majority of this season with him.
The subplot had been percolating before Sunday night. It was easy to ignore given the Sixers’ 3-0 start. A win over the defending champs on opening night, a dramatic comeback against the other Eastern Conference finalist, a win without James on Saturday in the front end of the back-to-back … it’s tough to nit-pick a team that is on pace to go 82-0.
Beat reporters Gina Mizell and Chris Hine break down their most intriguing quotes from LeBron James and Tyrese Maxey during the preseason, along with what they most hope to learn about this revamped roster during the first month of the season. Watch here.
Watch the full interview below and subscribe to the Sixers Extra podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
But the nit was there, and it was real. In the season-opener, Embiid scored just 13 points on 2-of-7 shooting. Yet the Sixers outscored the Knicks by 13 when he was on the court, and the Knicks outscored the Sixers by seven when he was off it. In the Sixers’ comeback win over the Cavaliers in their home opener, Cleveland outscored them by 10 in 14 minutes backup center Adem Bona was on the court. Embiid finished at +18 in a game the Sixers won by eight. In their first three games combined, the Sixers were plus-49 with Embiid on the court and minus-25 with him off it.
The storyline erupted into full view on Sunday. The night before, after a win over the Bucks that improved the Sixers to 3-0, Embiid told reporters he wanted to play against the Pistons.
“I actually want to play tomorrow, so can you guys put pressure on them,” he said with a smile that suggested he knew his fate had already been decided.
The Sixers did the right thing by sticking to their plan. A one-game absence will not derail a season. Anything longer than that could be a problem.
