With the Philadelphia 76ers looking to close out the series on Monday night on the road against the Washington Wizards, they had a tough task ahead of them already. The Wizards are led by two stars of their own in Russell Westbrook and Bradley Beal and they were not going to go down without a fight.
On top of the strong play from Westbrook and Beal, the Sixers did lose their superstar big man, Joel Embiid, in the first half due to right knee soreness. Without Embiid, it was tough to find consistent offense and they had to rely more on Mike Scott and Dwight Howard.
Afterward, coach Doc Rivers was not sure what happened to his superstar leader.
“Obviously, it was in the middle of the game so I didn’t really check,” said Rivers. “I just knew he was out. I wasn’t even sure what it was. I think it was the knee or the back.”
Once Embiid went out, the Sixers had to rely on other players to step up in his absence, but it was just not enough to overcome Westbrook and Beal on the road. Tobias Harris had a tough night shooting just 8-for-24 as he was not able to make up for the offensive loss of the big fella.
“Once Jo came out, I don’t think we were moving the ball as well,” said Ben Simmons. “We weren’t playing team ball for a minute and then also not getting stops which is a huge part of our offense in order to be able to push the ball which hurt us for a little bit.”
It was a tough time for the Sixers once the big fella went down. Philadelphia was in the midst of trying to close out a series and then, boom, they lose their superstar leader.
“Originally, at the time, we knew he wasn’t coming back in the game,” Harris said. “That was about it. That’s all we knew.”
The last time Embiid was injured in Washington, he was out for 10 games with a bone bruise back in March. The hope is that he will be all set and ready to go for Game 5 on Wednesday.
“I don’t know the details so I can’t really speak on that,” Simmons added. “Obviously, we need Jo to win. He’s a big part of this team, but if he’s not there the next game, we got to close it out. We got what we need.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!