Olympic champion with the United States, Joel Embiid will have waited three months to return to the field, and after treating his knee, then serving a three-match suspension, the 2023 MVP made his comeback last night against the Knicks. A losing return on a collective level, and complicated on an individual level with 13 points on 2 out of 11 shots, 3 rebounds, 5 assists and 1 block in 26 minutes.
“It’s a question of confidence and confidence. I talked about it two weeks ago with you, this is the mental obstacle I have to overcome” he explained after the meeting. “But I think I can still be very good even without it, and I will get there at some point.” I don't know when. Maybe in the next game, maybe in two games… Usually it comes back pretty quickly, so it’s okay.”
Making up for lost time
Facing him, Karl-Anthony Towns, a choice opponent for a return to school, author of 21 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists. “It’s obvious that Joel is a very good defender, but for a first match, it takes a little time to get into the rhythm” recalls Josh Hart. “KAT did what we expected of him… He made two or three 3-pointers, attacked the rim, played the way we wanted him to. He set the tone from the start, he got some big rebounds and we fed off that. »
While the Sixers are in 14th place in the Eastern Conference with 2 victories in 10 matches, Joel Embiid wants to make up for lost time, and work on his automatisms with Paul George. The sooner the better, but it will probably not be for Wednesday evening since the Sixers challenge the Cavaliers back-to-back, and Joel Embiid, just like Paul George, could be spared.
The “Big Three” still haven’t played together
“I think it’s all about getting together on the pitch, learning to play with each other”thus estimates the pivot. “But health is an important element. I'm back, PG is feeling pretty good, now we need Tyrese to come back, and once we're all on the field I think we'll have a good chance of winning games. »
Same speech from Paul George who recalls that the Sixers have been undermined by injuries since the start of the season.
“The season is long. Once we have all our pieces together, we will start moving in the right direction. We will begin to have consistency and automatisms will continue to develop. For now, this is Joel's first match [Embiid]Tyrese [Maxey] is still out, so we haven't seen this team in full yet. These are important elements for us. We all try to do a little more than we're supposed to. Which is normal because we're trying to fill big gaps and gaps, but once we're at full strength, I think that's when we can judge our fitness. »
