Joel Embiid: “I Need to Have Fun While Playing”

The Philadelphia 76ers’ plans are slowly starting to become a reality. They wanted to take the home-court advantage from the Raptors by defeating them at least once in Canada, which they did. Now, it is up to them to confirm that break.

The first part of the job is done. The Sixers won last night 116-95, and they did that by leading throughout the entire contest. Brett Brown’s boys were ruthless in some moments. At the end of the third period, the guests came down to seven points, 89-82, and everyone at Well Fargo Center felt a little bit worried knowing that the Raptors are a good team.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbBMqFs2SSU&t=42s

But a 21-2 series which lasted some seven minutes cleared all doubts and closed this meeting. At the end of the game, when examining the stats, there was one very interesting fact. Sixers had almost twice as more assists than the Raptors, 29-15.

Joel Embiid talked about that after the game, saying that when you have great teammates around you, making an assist is not that hard.

“When you have great basketball players on the floor, it’s easy. It’s not that complicated,” said Embiid. “We all — we’re passers, we play slow, we’re so unselfish. We understand that it’s all about moving the ball.”

The Process had a great night, and he finally managed to break the ice against the Raptors and post a performance at his usual level. After combining for 28 points in the opening two games of the series, he surpassed that last night by dropping 33 buckets on Toronto’s defense. Marc Gasol couldn’t handle him this time.

And what was the reason for this? According to Embiid – fun. Sixers’ center explained that his game is directly correlated with the amount of fun he has on the court.

“When I have fun, my game just changes,” Embiid said. “I know to get my game going, I’ve got to have fun on the court.”

That mood inspired him a lot, because he damaged the guests in so many ways. Whether was that offensively where he made threes, scored under the rim, was almost perfect from the line; or on the defensive side of the ball, it doesn’t really matter. The point is the same, his team won.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN5Qu93lvpc

Kawhi Leonard also had 33 points, and he tried to match Embiid’s influence on the court, hoping to lead his team to a rebreak in Pennsylvania. At the post-match press conference, he admitted that such a thing wasn’t possible last night, precisely because of Embiid.

“He made his presence [felt], got to the free-throw line, hit some big threes, had five blocks tonight,” said the 2014 NBA Finals MVP. “You know, he did his job.”

For coach Brown Embiid’s effort in defense was the best part of his performance last night. Brown always stresses out the importance of a good defense in this series.

“I mean, for me it goes straight to the blocks,” Brown commented. “You know, we can talk about a windmill dunk. You can talk about some finesse post moves and that, but I go to defense. That’s what interests me the most to date with this series.”

And it seems that the 58-year old coach has a point there. Philly won two straight games and the first thing you notice when you see the result are points allowed. Toronto couldn’t reach 100 points, and the results are immediately visible.

During the regular part of the season, the only one of four games Philly won, ended with the Raptors scoring 101 points. It might not be a rule, but it seems that each time 76ers limit their rivals to 100 points or less, they get away with a triumph.

If they win the next match, the 76ers are going to be awfully close to reaching the Eastern Conference finals, which was their goal before the campaign started. After that, everything is possible.

Game 4 of this interesting series is set for Sunday, 4:30 p.m. ET.