Embiid continues to show 76ers are different team with center in lineup

Just when it seemed like Joel Embiid was going to sit for the Philadelphia 76ers, the center came up big for his team on Wednesday against the San Antonio Spurs.

With the San Antonio Spurs in town Wednesday night, all signs pointed to the Philadelphia 76ers playing another game without Joel Embiid, who had suffered a sprained right hand against the Phoenix Suns on Sunday. Obviously, the Sixers were taking the safe approach with their beloved center due to his history of injuries, but seeing Embiid end up playing at the last second while making the high level of impact that he did to help his team defeat the Spurs ended up being quite the unexpected surprise.

Even though San Antonio was resting some key players such as Kawhi Leonard, Gregg Popovich‘s team in general is always a difficult challenge since the head coach always knows how to get the best from his players, no matter who they are. So as far as the Sixers were concerned, Brett Brown understood Wednesday’s game against his mentor would be no walk in the park, which is why the surprise news of Embiid deciding to play ended up being a huge factor.

Once again, the presence of Embiid in the lineup made Philadelphia look like a completely different team after the former Kansas standout ended up leading the team in minutes (35) while contributing 21 points to go along with 11 rebounds and four assists. And to top it off, Embiid contributed four blocks as well, causing all sorts of problems for San Antonio throughout the game.

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All things considered, Embiid’s hand looked completely fine for the most part since, as mentioned before, that seemed to be a huge risk heading in since the last thing the Sixers wanted to see happen was the injury ending up being worse. As for whether Embiid will be good enough to go for Friday’s game against the Detroit Pistons, only time will tell, but obviously Philadelphia would love to see him suit up if possible since his performance against San Antonio continues to show how much of a difference this team is when he’s healthy enough to be in the lineup. And with the Sixers earning their third win in a row (second in a row with a healthy Embiid), it’s a relief to see this team finally moving in the right direction after recently losing 10 of 12 games.