The Sixers’ first game in the 2020-21 season without the All-Star center certainly did not go according to plan.
They lost to the Cavaliers on Sunday night, 118-94, dropping to 2-1. Joel Embiid was dropped shortly before the complaint for back tightness.
Cleveland’s Andre Drummond scored 24 points and had 14 rebounds. Tobias Harris scored 16 points, nine rebounds and five assists for the Sixers.
Embiid did not appear in any of the official NBA injury reports earlier in the day, and coach Doc Rivers chose not to disclose whether the Sixers would have their All-Star pivot out of the team’s second game against opening back. Rivers said after the game that Embiid was expected to play and that his health “is not a cause for concern”.
“He was really planning to go and fell on the floor, and he had a little bit of stiffness in his back,” said Rivers. “We just thought, why take the risk so early in the season?”
Embiid played 31 minutes on Saturday in the Sixers’ victory over the Knicks, including a pass at 10:24 to start the game, and had the best of the team with 27 points and 10 rebounds. His absence on Sunday is no cause for alarm, as Rivers and the Sixers try to strike a balance that keeps players healthy, well-conditioned and working effectively with each other. It is not easy, as Rivers is well aware, but the availability of Embiid for more important games is an obvious priority, and it made no sense to have him playing with less than full health.
Furkan Korkmaz came out at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Rivers said he was not sure of his status and did not want to guess.
The Sixers’ next game is Tuesday against the Raptors.
Here are the notes about the loss to Cleveland:
A big drop with the Big Sixers men
Dwight Howard started in place of Embiid and was frustrated with the refereeing for much of the game. He suffered his third foul at 7:54 from the end of the second half due to some internal dispute with Drummond, which forced Tony Bradley to enter earlier than planned for his second pass.
Bradley was the center of the Sixers – at least in the first half. The 22-year-old took two starting blocks, one in a JaVale McGee return jump and one in an attempted driving layout from Cedi Osman. He was a very good rebound last season in 58 games with Jazz and believes he has the ability to “stretch five”. Defensive agility and general explosiveness are weaknesses for the UNC product, and its external firing is largely untapped today. One would think that Bradley should still have the game to hold the fort as a reserve for Howard in these situations when Embiid is out, but this was not a strong start. He finished with four points from 2 of 7 shots and eight rebounds in 17 minutes.
The Sixers went with Mike Scott as a small ball center to close the first half. As if things couldn’t get any worse for the Sixers, McGee emptied a three-point basket. He made 6 in 35 long-distance over the course of his NBA career when he entered the game. Scott took the central reserve minutes from Bradley in the second half as well, before Bradley went back to the fourth period’s trash time.
It’s like saying the water is wet, but yes, the Embiid is very valuable to the Sixers at both ends of the floor. As the list is, it certainly looks like the two stars will need to be healthy for the Sixers to succeed in the playoffs.
Exceeding the margin of error
Many of the defensive problems of the Sixers in this game can be attributed to Embiid being left out and the Cavs still undefeated doing well.
That said, the team’s collective energy and effort levels dropped as Cleveland built a big lead in the second quarter. A quick 3-to-1 break that ended with Drummond converting one and one against Harris and no other Sixers anywhere near the play was a lowlight.
Sloppy changes gave Cavs many of those chances. A smooth pass from Danny Green to Howard led to another Drummond transition layup at the beginning of the third quarter and prompted Rivers to request a break. Without Embiid anchoring the defense, the Sixers’ margin of error is inevitably smaller – even against opponents who are less talented than they are on paper.
It is not an offensive effective backup plan
Harris scored the first five points of the Sixers by scoring a foul on a baseline drive and hitting a top three key in the transition. The first good points for Harris included the fact that he tried three catch-and-shoot triples in the first four minutes of the game and did not start off as badly in his defensive fight against Larry Nance Jr. as on Saturday night against Julius Randle. The decision in the air to launch a pass chosen by Cleveland’s Darius Garland was negative. He’s trending in the right direction, but the Sixers would need Harris to be tremendous to defeat the Cavs given how hard the team fought as a whole.
While the concept of Ben Simmons pushing the ball and kicking at the pitchers sounds great in theory and has worked a few times in the past, it is not a winning formula if the pitchers are not taking down the jumpers at a good pace. Sixers in addition to Harris hit 6 out of 31 in the three-point range, and the team made just 5 of 16 mid-range attempts, by Cleaning the Glass.
It also didn’t help that Simmons sometimes seemed rushed and out of control while constantly looking for transition opportunities. The 24-year-old had six of the Sixers’ 21 spins. He scored 15 points, six rebounds, four assists, two blocks and two steals.