Joel Embiid, former Philadelphia 76ers MVP Center, was benched Saturday.
He stopped the entire final quarter of the Six's latest brand, a 105-103 defeat at Brooklynnett on Saturday with a buzzer beater puttback from center Nick Claxton.
Following the loss, Philadelphia head coach Nick Nurse said Embiid was “not himself.”
“He's certainly not a guy we're used to seeing play at a very high level, but I admire him for giving us what we can do.” The nurse added.
t explanationHe told the bench, “The group played together so well, and at that point it felt good in the game and I just wanted to roll them together.”
Philadelphia tracked two digits at halftime and then two digits with 17 points before forcing the tie in the remaining seconds.
However, the close loss meant that Philadelphia had dropped seven consecutive contests.
Finishing with just 14 points, seven rebounds and five assists against Brooklyn, Embiid shot 13-4 from the field and missed all six of his 3-point attempts.
Embiid recently lends his voice to him, not his true form. Most notably, they faced a 124-104 loss at the Boston Celtics home on Thursday, their first game after the All-Star break.
“The way I played a year ago isn't the way I play now,” the 2023 MVP said last week. “We probably need to solve the problem, and we'll get back to that level.”
The loss has been reduced the Six to 20-36 this season, sitting 12th in the Eastern Conference.
As of now, they are 1.5 games from the play-in tournament, the game behind the net that beat them this weekend.
