BOSTON–The Philadelphia 76ers welcomed Joel Embiid back to the lineup for the first time since April 20 after he missed two games with a sprained LCL in his right knee. He suffered the injury in Round 1 against the Brooklyn Nets and he needed time off before returning to the floor.
After the Sixers knocked off the Boston Celtics in Game 1 without Embiid, the logical decision seemed to be to wait for Game 3 to bring back the big fella from the injury. That way, he would have more time to rest and he would return in a home game with the Wells Fargo Center crowd behind him.
Instead, he made his return on Wednesday in a 121-87 loss to the Celtics and Embiid looked rusty. He scored only 14 points on 4-for-9 shooting with three rebounds, but he did have five blocks.
“I feel pretty good,” Embiid said after the loss. “I’m OK. It felt pretty good to go up and down a little bit and it feels pretty good.”
Even if the Sixers waited for Game 3 back at home on Friday for him to return, he would still have a ton of rust. It is better to get it out of the way now rather than wait until Friday.
“The way we saw it, with what I have, I’m not gonna be–what I have is supposed to be out 4-to-6 weeks or something like that,” said Embiid. “So I’m not gonna be 100% for that whole time. I’m not gonna be fully healed for that whole time. I felt pretty good to play and I feel like I can help the team defensively and offensively. Obviously, offensively, I wasn’t as aggressive. I was just trying to let the game come to me and then defensively, just protecting the rim and I think I did a fine job when it comes to that.”
Embiid saw an opportunity with the Sixers up 1-0 to try and help make it 2-0 before this series shifts to Philadelphia. It just didn’t work out for him or the Sixers on this night.
“I just felt like being up 1-0 and having a chance to go up 2-0 against this type of team, I knew they were going to come at us,” he explained. “I expected it, but you never know. Anything can happen so I just felt like it probably would have been the same result as far as how I’m feeling if I would’ve come back in Game 3. Probably rusty and not myself, but I feel like just got this out of the way.”
Now, Embiid has to make sure he is ready to go for Friday. That is the big goal for both him and the Sixers.
“Disappointed by the loss, but that’s a step towards getting back to myself and obviously, I got a lot of work to do,” he finished. “That starts tonight (Wednesday) and tomorrow to make sure I’m ready for Friday.”
Story originally appeared on Sixers Wire