Sixers' Joel Embiid Offers Update on His Back After LeBron James Shove
Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid took a hard fall on Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Lakers. On a play where Embiid attempted to posterize LeBron James with a big dunk, the Lakers veteran gave the big man a shove in mid-air.
As expected, Embiid didn't complete the dunk. Instead, he fell hard on the ground, which caused him to remain down for some time. After rolling around in pain after the impact, Embiid's teammates managed to help him off the floor.
The referees reviewed the sequence, and it resulted in a Flagrant 1 foul call for LeBron James, which Embiid didn't necessarily agree with. "First of all, if you look at it, that's a very dangerous play," Embiid said. "I guarantee you that if it was me, I would've probably been ejected from the game."
Embiid believes the foul should've been ruled as a Flagrant 2, resulting in James getting ejected -- but that wasn't the case. LeBron remained in the game. As for Embiid, he stayed on the court and finished the game as well, despite being in a lot of pain.
"Hopefully, it's fine," Embiid said after the game in regards to his back. "The test will be when I wake up in the morning and see how it feels, but I'm glad that I pushed through, and I'm glad that we got the win."
Although the Sixers picked up the win, it wasn't easy. After being in control for most of the matchup, the 76ers nearly had a collapse and allowed the Lakers to get out in front late in the matchup.
Embiid, who dominated the matchup in the beginning, took accountability for the team's struggles later on in the game. The big man put some of that blame on the injury he suffered from his fall. "I missed a couple of shots," he said. "I just didn't have the legs. Not because I was tired, which I wasn't, but my back just didn't allow me to dominate the way I've been doing in fourth quarters."
For the last few weeks, Embiid has had his bouts with back injuries. While the setbacks haven't forced him to miss several games at a time, the star center is hopeful that won't end up being the case this time around after getting injured again on Wednesday.
Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter: @JGrasso_
