Sixers center Joel Embiid suspected that he had a concussion and a broken bone in his face immediately after being struck by Pascal Siakam‘s elbow in the closing moments of their first-round series, writes Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.
Embiid went through a similar injury four years ago in a collision with then-teammate Markelle Fultz. That resulted in a break of the opposite orbital bone and forced Embiid to have surgery to relieve pressure in his eye. It appears he will avoid surgery this time, and he’s hoping to be able to return for Game 3 or 4 against Miami.
After several days of concussion symptoms, Embiid’s sensitivity to light improved enough by Wednesday that he was able to FaceTime with coach Doc Rivers and watch the Sixers battle the Heat in Game 2, sources tell Shelburne. The team has a mask ready for Embiid in case he’s able to play, but he probably won’t need goggles like he did in 2018, according to Shelburne’s sources.
Embiid remains determined to play as soon as he clears concussion protocols, Shelburne adds, and his return may be Philadelphia’s only hope of climbing out of a 2-0 hole.
There’s more from Philadelphia:
- Rivers credits Heat president Pat Riley with getting him interested in coaching, per Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. Their relationship dates back to 1992, when Riley was coaching the Knicks and the team acquired Rivers to be its point guard. “I’ve been around some pretty good guys,” Rivers said. “But Riley, clearly, had the biggest impact. It’s not even close. I mean, I had no thoughts of coaching until I played for Pat Riley and the way he did it, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s pretty cool.’”
- The Sixers must dramatically improve their shooting to have a chance at a comeback, observes Kyle Neubeck of The Philly Voice. While Matisse Thybulle‘s defense has been valuable, Philadelphia’s offense suffers when he’s on the court, especially with Embiid unavailable. “We needed Matisse on the floor,” Rivers said. “I thought he did an excellent job overall on Tyler Herro, but now you got Matisse and [DeAndre Jordan], or Matisse and Paul [Reed] on the floor, and they’re really just playing a two-man zone off of those two guys. It’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”
- James Harden has been the target of a lot of criticism since arriving in Philadelphia, but he and Embiid have been incredibly efficient as a pick-and-roll combination, notes Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer (video link). That’s one of the factors the team will have to consider this summer as Harden becomes eligible for a four-year extension worth more than $220MM.
Harden and Embiid p&r is elite and gets a ton of shot for other teammates. At this point Harden is just a playmaker but not a scorer. The days of him being a scoring machine are over. Because of this, the super-max is off the table 100%, still i can see Philly offering something around 4 years 160-180 at best, and i will still be hesitant because of Harden’s poor conditioning and age.
That’s best case price, but we all know this contract will become untradeable at some point. I’d say Hardens next contract gets the same value in terms of production as Wall/Westbrook.
Yeah, maybe… but that is the case always with all the superstars/stars that get the super-max. Outside LBJ, and CP3, all the other max contracts at those stages are horrible.
If Dame gets one i bet that will look really bad too in three years.
Disagree Westbrook can’t play with other player makers he needs the ball in his hands it’s why Westbrook and Beal worked. Harden is a facilitator. Harden is probably a 25 million a year player he probably gets 33-40. Harden may want to be able to help get more players in Philly. It depends. He’s comfortable Morey is his guy. Philly has a 3-4 year window with Embiid.
Basic basketball for the druids. Spacing. Hit the open man. Open Man hits open shot. If open man doesn’t defense collapse on the BEARD and he gets mugged in the lane. See Sixers miss, see the BEARD get obliterated in the lane by 5 defenders!!! Not brain surgery.
Some team should use Druids as their mascot.
Harden has been a great great player, but it would scare me death to give him a four year max contract for his age 33 thru 36 seasons. $55 million a season will decimate the franchise if his body starts to abandon him.
Harden true value
4-year $100 million
Comparable to Draymond, the young man.
Harden’s main objective this series: Dont get hurt, Dont get hurt, and maintain decent stats by not shooting too much. No urgency whatsoever to win. Lame!!!
I really really can’t put into words how much I just want us to play out this contract and move on from Harden.
Delusional Philly fans as usual Harris is pocketing 36 million a year scores 9 pts in 39 minutes and you’re complaining about Harden
I like the Harden/Maxey combo (at least offensively) bc it’s a tall-1/short-2 combo. I don’t get how the shortest guy always gets put at PG… usually he’s the guy with the giant-slayer complex, and the tallwr guy can see more to find more.
Well it worked last night— they did not need that much from Embiid except to hang tough.
Not sure what Maxey is thinking as he pounds around— when a shot opens up he releases quickly & happily, like the thought only existed in passing while he was daydreaming with the ball & suddenly was open.
Good contrast to analytical, scheming Harden… Has to be tough on a defense.
I have read though, that they do not get along personally. Different type people.