Joel Embiid comes back fighting after Philadelphia 76ers win first game in 4th attempt: “They probably wanted me to be traded and the whole team to be sent down to G League”
After going winless in their first three games, the Philadelphia 76ers logged their first victory, defeating the Indiana Pacers 120-106 on Monday. James Harden scored a game-high 29 points to go along with 11 rebounds and nine assists.
Joel Embiid wasn't far behind, putting up 26 points in the winning effort. Tobias Harris added 18 points and eight rebounds, and Georges Niang added 13 points (3-for-6 from 3-point range).
The win gave a sigh of relief to Philadelphia fans, who had booed the 76ers off the court following their loss to the San Antonio Spurs. Following the win, Joel Embiid, James Harden and Georges Niang addressed the media, giving their thoughts on Philly's win.
"They probably wanted me to be traded and the whole team to be sent down to the G League," Embiid said. "... But to me, it's no pressure. 0-3, three games in, fairly new team, everybody trying to find their way." (via) Gina Mizell
Harden added:
"It felt good man, it felt like we were 0-82. Felt good, it's a work in progress. As much we want things to happen overnight and us to be 4-0 or 1-3, so we just have to continue to work. Continue to build really good habits, and live with the results. "
Georges Niang added:
"As James said, it's a process. We're still trying to figure each other out."
Philadelphia 76ers' slow start to the season
The Philadelphia 76ers came into the season as one of the favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference. However, their inauspicious 0-3 start raised a lot of eyebrows vis-à-vis determining how strong this team really is.
Their first win over the possibly tanking Indiana Pacers shouldn't be much of a celebration.
Two of their three losses have come against premier Eastern Conference teams. Both of those teams, the Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks, have an incredibly high chance of winning an NBA title. So, it wouldn't exactly be fair to pit a brand-new team against two rosters that have been to the NBA finals in the past two seasons.
However, the Philadelphia 76ers did improve in some of the areas that needed attention, the most significant of which was ball movement.
In losses to the Bucks and the Celtics, James Harden put up 31 and 35 points respectively, with massive disparities in touches. This was first pointed out by Nekias Duncan on Twitter.
PHI post-Harden trade vs the beginning of this year.
Hmm. https://t.co/XFxAOkT4hW
Harden had 98 touches against the Celtics, with Embiid and Maxey tied for the next-most touches at 73. Tobias Harris had just 43 touches in third place.
Similarly, against the Bucks, Harden's touches were even higher (102) and the next best was even lower (63 for Embiid). More than anything, these tracking stats imply ball stagnancy which leads to the offense being inevitably driven through just one player: James Harden.
However, in the win against the Pacers, the Philadelphia 76ers improved ever so slightly on their touch-disparity. Their four starters logged 87 (Harden), 79 (Maxey), 59 (Embiid) and 50 (Harris) touches.
While Embiid's low touches are a point of concern, less ball hogging and more ball movement is certainly a step in the right direction.