Philadelphia 76ers: Injuries, not moping, hampered Joel Embiid in Game 5

When Dewayne Dedmon swatted a basketball into Joel Embiid‘s face at the 6:11 mark of the second quarter, it had the potential to change the tenor of the Philadelphia 76ers‘ Game 5 bout against the Miami Heat.

The narrative was there; Embiid rolled on the floor in pain, Doc Rivers chewed out the referee so much he earned a technical, and the game halted for what felt like an hour. Surely Embiid’s teammates would watch their fearless leader return to the court without missing a second of action and rally behind his efforts, right?

They tried to, but the Sixers didn’t score for another minute and a half, with Embiid going 0-1 during that run, and were unable to chip away at the Heat’s lead, which ballooned up to 12 heading into the half.

But why? Was Jojo just giving too little effort or *gasp* moping over his lost MVP, as Chris Haynes suggested during the TNT broadcast, or, hear me out on this one, maybe the Philadelphia 76ers’ franchise player is still dealing with a torn ligament in his thumb that requires a sling, a broken orbital bone that requires a mask, and a back injury that caused him to grimace in pain multiple times?

Yeah, I’m going to go with the latter, thank you very much.

The Philadelphia 76ers need to make better in-game adjustments.

Despite his best efforts to rally his troops at the 6:11 mark in the second, Doc Rivers really didn’t do a good job in the Philadelphia 76ers’ 120-85 loss to the Miami Heat when it comes to in-game adjustments.

When the Heat started to swarm Joel Embiid any time he tried to post-up during the first quarter, Rivers didn’t go away from the play until he started to feather in his bench players, and Miami built up a lead that would prove insurmountable. When Jimmy Butler went on a run early and scored 14 points in the first half, Matisse Thybulle wasn’t inserted into the game to stop the bleeding, with Rivers instead turning to Georges Niang, who, *spoiler alert* is probably the worst defender in Philly’s regular rotation.

Goodness, Tyrese Maxey made just two of his shots from the field and played really bad defense in what was arguably his worst playoff game as a Sixer, and Rivers really had to answer for it, even if rolling with Harden at the one, Thybulle, Danny Green, and Tobias Harris on the wings and Embiid/Paul Reed in the paint could have proved a solid counterpunch for the lineups Erik Spoelstra was throwing Philly’s way without Kyle Lowry.

If a rotation isn’t working, why keep going to it?

Now granted, Doc didn’t stick to his lineup card to a T. I doubt he intended to play Reed and Embiid on the court together, even if that lineup, which only played together for 58 seconds, didn’t do much, and Shake Milton’s 20 minutes of action was a new 2022 postseason high, but when the biggest change of plans is how early to throw in the flag and go all-bench, which happened at the 8:18 mark, you know you’re in trouble.

Look, I’m not going to sugarcoat things: If Joel Embiid plays like he did in Game 5 in Game 6, the Philadelphia 76ers are going to have a hard time winning. The Miami Heat are too good, the Sixers’ bench is too shallow, and they just don’t have the auxiliary options needed to overcome an underwhelming performance by their best player. But goodness, to place the blame for this particular loss on Embiid’s shoulder alone is crazy; he led the team in scoring, had shot 7-12 from the field, and still picked up five rebounds versus just two turnovers while playing with a broken face. When the Sixers’ starting lineup sans Embiid scores just 41 points, you’re going to have trouble beating the worst team in the Eastern Conference, the Orlando Magic, let alone the reigning pennant holders who lost just 12 games at home in the regular season and playoffs combined.