{"id":71752,"date":"2024-04-03T09:09:38","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T13:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=71752"},"modified":"2024-04-06T22:31:04","modified_gmt":"2024-04-07T02:31:04","slug":"sixers-joel-embiid-transparent-injury-took-toll-mentally-sidelined-2-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/03\/sixers-joel-embiid-transparent-injury-took-toll-mentally-sidelined-2-months\/","title":{"rendered":"Joel Embiid on Injury: \u2018Took a Toll Mentally\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It almost didn\u2019t happen but Philadelphia 76ers center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/e\/embiijo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joel Embiid<\/a> made <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/01\/sixers-mvps-potential-injury-return-date-revealed\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">his long-awaited return<\/a> to the court on Tuesday night as the Sixers took down the Oklahoma City Thunder.<\/p>\n<p>Finishing the contest with 24 points, six rebounds, seven assists, and three steals in 29 minutes, Embiid looked like he never left with his first shot attempt of the game. Drawing a double team in the midpost, the 7-footer rose over the defense and canned the jumper.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"WHAT A COMEBACK \ud83d\udc4f Joel Embiid WENT OFF in first game since JANUARY \ud83d\udd25 | NBA on ESPN\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZshNPdVE22w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Embiid went 5-13 after that attempt due to the Thunder\u2019s tight defense and rust.<\/p>\n<p>However, even in just that moment, it\u2019s easy to see why the Sixers find him so hard to replace. His scoring ability and the resulting gravity make life easier for his teammates. Indeed, Philadelphia got five 3-pointers off of Embiid\u2019s assists last night.<\/p>\n<p>This is particularly notable as the Sixers defeated the Thunder by a three-point margin and outscored OKC by three points on 3s.<\/p>\n<h2>Joel Embiid on Injury: \u2018Took a Toll Mentally\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Following the game, Embiid spoke to reporters at his locker. Opening up about his mindset after being sidelined for two months, the seven-time All-Star says: \u201cUsually when I have injuries I just tell myself you\u2019re improving, onto the next one, get better\u2026 fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut this one took a toll mentally,\u201d he reveals. \u201cBeing depressed. It was not a good one. Still not where I&#8217;m supposed to be, especially mentally. But I just love to play.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Joel Embiid said this absence affected him unlike any.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When I have injuries I just tell myself onto the next one, get better, I&#8217;m gonna fix it. But this one took a toll mentally. Being depressed&#8230;Still not where I&#8217;m supposed to be, especially mentally. But I just love to play&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fQhEY4xzsx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/fQhEY4xzsx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mike Vorkunov (@MikeVorkunov) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MikeVorkunov\/status\/1775363230572986589?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 3, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love basketball and I want to play,\u201d Embiid continues. \u201cAny chance that I can be out there, I\u2019m gonna take it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Embiid is averaging 35.0 points, 11.1 rebounds, 5.7 assists, 1.2 steals, and 1.7 blocks per game this season. Physically, as he gets back into rhythm and game shape, he should return to posting similar numbers. Mentally, the hope will be that just playing competitive games period, and being in the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/29\/raptors-scottie-barnes-rj-barrett-return-practice-extended-absence\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">proverbial basketball sanctuary<\/a> should bring him joy.<\/p>\n<h3>Securing a Playoff Berth<\/h3>\n<p>At 41-35, the Sixers are eighth in the East. As a result, Philadelphia is on the path to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/news\/nba-play-in-tournament\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Play-In Tournament<\/a> berth. A single-elimination tournament that gives ninth- and 10th-seeded teams an opportunity to reach the postseason, the Sixers would be best served by avoiding this scenario altogether.<\/p>\n<p>However, time is running out for them to climb the East ladder. With six games remaining on their schedule, they\u2019re 2.0 games behind the sixth-seeded Indiana Pacers. Only after leapfrogging them will Philadelphia guarantee its playoff berth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It almost didn\u2019t happen but Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid made his long-awaited return to the court on Tuesday night as the Sixers took down the Oklahoma City Thunder. Finishing the contest with 24 points, six rebounds, seven assists, and three steals in 29 minutes, Embiid looked like he never left with his first shot [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":71757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1608,62,3],"tags":[267,4745,596],"class_list":["post-71752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-76ers","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-joel-embiid","tag-nba-injuries","tag-nba-playoffs"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}