Although the 76ers defeated the Raptors yesterday to advance to the second round, the hanging fear of being overturned was finally put down, but today, there is a bad news. Embiid suffered injuries in his sixth game against the Toronto Raptors, suffered a fractured left eye socket as well as a minor concussion, according to Shams.
He is also a cameroonian, but left a grudge in the series
The turn that caused Embiid to be injured occurred when Siakam attacked with 3:58 left in the fourth quarter, Embiid directly ate a large elbow while defending, and then Embiid covered his face in pain, while the referee blew a defensive foul at the first time, but the final challenge was changed to Siakam's offensive foul.
Embiid and Siakam, a pair of Cameroonian compatriots, left a grudge in the series. In the fourth game between the two sides, the Raptors took a 12-point lead with three minutes left in the game, and Siakam held the ball through the half and Embiid rushed directly to foul him, and the big move also caused Siakam's dissatisfaction. After the game, he said Embiid's movements were dirty. Unexpectedly, embiid was now substantially hurt by Siakam.
What a coincidence! Embiid had also suffered a fracture of his left orbit before the Heat
It is worth mentioning that Embiid has suffered a left orbit fracture before, and in the 17-18 season, Embiid collided with Fultz, who was still a teammate at the time, on the field. The collision also caused a fracture of his left eye frame and a concussion, and Embiid underwent surgery that directly led to his absence from the final two weeks of the regular season and the first two games of the playoffs.
It is worth mentioning that they faced the Miami Heat in the playoffs, when in the absence of Embiid, the 76ers and the Heat drew 1:1, and Embiid returned, leading the team to win three consecutive games, and finally eliminated the Heat. It's just that this season, the Heat are the stronger team, and if Embiid is out of the game due to injury, it will be a thunderbolt for the 76ers, which means that their probability of qualifying is even lower.
The vacancy in Embiid is unfillable
You know, Embiid can average 26.2 points and 11.3 rebounds per game in the playoffs, and when he's not there, no one in Philadelphia can fill his gap, and it is simply unrealistic to expect Harden to make up for Embiid's offensive firepower. Although Harden played a heroic role in the final game of the Raptors series, scoring 22 points and 15 assists in the whole game, but today's Harden is no longer the Harden who can kill randomly, the entire series Harden scored less than 20 points in three games, the highest score is only 22 points, and now Harden has lost the explosive power of scoring, and there is no way to fill the scoring gap left by Embiid. And losing embiid in the box, it is even more impossible to expect Paul Reed and Jordan Jr. to stand up, this round of the series, the 76ers may have gone.
For now we only hope that Embiid's injuries this time are not as serious as before, and that he can return in time for the series with the Heat in a short period of time.