Moving on is Easy for Joel Embiid After Blowout Loss to Cavs
Losing is inevitable in the NBA. With 82 games in one season, going undefeated is simply not realistic — especially for a team that’s missing multiple key players.
The Philadelphia 76ers haven’t been off to the best start this season, but they have turned things around since going 1-4 in their first five outings. Heading into their Wednesday night matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Joel Embiid and the Sixers had an opportunity to go 13-9, building off their best win-loss ratio of the young season.
Instead, all of the momentum built from the previous week was crumbled by the Cavs, who wanted to avoid losing six-straight to the Sixers after getting swept by them last year.
Despite a close first-quarter performance, which featured the Sixers trailing by just four points after dropping an early seven-point lead, the visiting team couldn’t counter the incoming offensive attack.
The Cavaliers were nearly perfect from the field, draining 94 percent of their 17 shots in the second quarter, totaling 44 points. At that point, Philly was down so much that barring a drastic second-half momentum shift, the Sixers were going to pick up their first loss in four games.
Sure enough, the Sixers left Cleveland with a 113-85 blowout loss.
Despite coming up way short of another Eastern Conference playoff contender, 76ers center Joel Embiid made it clear that it wouldn’t be hard for him to move past Wednesday’s defeat.
“[It’s] so easy,” said Embiid.
“Usually, I’m pissed off about the losses,” he continued. “Tonight, like I told the guys, on the bench in the fourth quarter, I was smiling. It’s just one of these nights where they made everything. We couldn’t make anything, and we couldn’t guard them. It was their night. You got to give them a lot of credit, too. They had a bad loss against Toronto. We knew coming in they were going to try being extra aggressive, and they did. We weren’t ready.”
Cleveland drained 61 percent of their shots from the field and 52 percent of their shots from deep. Despite losing the turnover battle against the Sixers, the Cavaliers still scored as many points in transition.
The loss was undoubtedly tough to see, but the Sixers are confident in their ability to put it past them and move on to the next matchup on Friday night.
“I don’t think guys get stuck on these,” said Doc Rivers. “I think a young team does. You lose — this is part of competition. Tonight, we showed up and didn’t have it.”
Embiid and the Sixers will look to bounce back on Friday with their first of two matchups against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.
