Philadelphia 76ers: Back-to-back Joel Embiid is still a work in progress

The Philadelphia 76ers still need to find a plan for back-to-back Embiid.

Through the first seven games of the 2020-21 NBA season, there wasn’t a better player than Philadelphia 76ers superstar center Joel Embiid.

Back in the City of Brotherly Love with a new diet, a new social media strategy, and a new son born shortly after the team’s exit from the Bubble in August, Embiid was playing a leaner, meaner brand of basketball that was fun to watch and even harder to cover.

Facing off against a Washington Wizards squad surging on the back of an in-progress 60 performance by Bradley Beal, Embiid closed out the game with 11 points in the final 12 minutes in route to a season-high 38 points in 37 minutes – marking the second time this season where Embiid had double-digit points in the fourth quarter.

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His passing was on point, his 3 point shooting was at a career-low in attempts and a career-high in percentage, and his ability to seemingly take over a quarter on his own when needed gave Philly the closer they sorely missed in 2019-20.

So naturally, when the Sixers got handed a gift with a TNT broadcasted contest against the Brooklyn Nets without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, it felt only natural that we’d get to see another dominant performance by the big man as he continues to put together an MVP resume, right? Yeah, you’d think that, wouldn’t you.

Playing in his first back to back of the season, Embiid- and the Sixers as a whole – came out of the tunnel at the Barclay Center sluggish, with seemingly very little interest to front-run against Steve Nash‘s club. Call it an unfortunate byproduct of having to scratch Seth Curry pregame with left ankle soreness, but the Sixers’ starting five played like total strangers, and their bench lacked the pop they usually get from second unit Shake Milton.

Is it ideal to be giving Dakota Mathias first-quarter minutes? No, most certainly not, but between Simmons, Embiid, and Milton, surely the Sixer should be able to breeze past a squad featuring a player Chris Webber called Jackie Moon, right?

Nope.

In a horrifically triggering flashback to the Brett Brown-era, the Sixers seemingly had no plan to concentrate Embiid’s effectiveness knowing that he’d just played 37 minutes the night prior. No, instead, the Sixers decided to play Embiid for twice as long as his backup, Dwight Howard, and neither Vincent Poirier nor Tony Bradley saw a single minute of action.

At halftime, Embiid exited the court having played 15 minutes – two less than Green and Simmons, three less than Harris, and four less than starter Shake Milton – while putting up eight points on 2-7 shots from the field with a -16 RPM. Embiid was also on track for a five turnover performance, marking the fourth time in eight games where he accomplished the feat.

Call it fatigue, call it a bad night, whatever you call it, the Sixers just can’t get going when three of their top four players either aren’t on the court or are playing poorly.

While Embiid did bounce back ever so slightly in the second half – finishing out the game with 20 points on 14 shots in 30 minutes of action – it wasn’t enough to get the team back in the game or to galvanize his troops for another fourth-quarter stand. If anything, having Embiid on the court with two minutes to go down 12 when every single person watching the game – virtual or not – knew the Sixers were going to lose is really an indictment on Rivers’ seeming ignorance to Embiid’s load management issues.

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Could Joel Embiid one day become the kind of player who doesn’t need to worry about back-to-backs, three games in five nights, or any sort of load management? Most definitely, even with his eighth contest of the season serving as his worst, the 26-year-old three-time All-Star put in quality minutes even if his Real Plus-Minus suggests otherwise. But to go into a back-to-back contest, Embiid’s first of the season, without a clear plan isn’t a particularly good look for Doc Rivers and the Philadelphia 76ers, especially when his team seemingly had a much easier contest than TNT wanted when they booked the game.