Doc Rivers' Takeaways on Joel Embiid's Return in Game 2

On Wednesday night, the newly crowned NBA MVP, Joel Embiid, returned to action after sitting out for the previous two games with a sprained LCL, which he suffered in the opening round against the Brooklyn Nets.

As the Cameroonian superstar was coming off of a little over two weeks without suiting up, his on-court facilities weren't all there, ending the second game with 15 points on 44 percent shooting while making a more than impressive five blocks in the first half.

Following the Philadelphia 76ers' loss on Wednesday night, Doc Rivers talked about Embiid's return, explaining that it left more to be desired, although expected given the circumstances.

"Rusty, early on, I thought he got in a rhythm a couple of times, and I thought we were out of rhythm as well, but we expected that," Rivers told reporters. "We knew there had to be some kind of growing pains bringing him back, so I'm glad we got it out of the way today."

With Embiid returning before the LCL sprain had proper time to heal, he was seen sporting a rather bulky brace, which caused him to struggle at times, falling over at one point.

Perhaps due to a lack of mobility with the brace, Rivers noticed that Embiid was looking to pass more than usual, especially in certain matchups early on, which is less than ideal for what they want from him, but they are okay with it for the time being.

"I thought he moved fine. I thought there were several times where he had matchups that he was looking to pass, especially earlier in the game," explained Rivers, "he was really trying to defer. We really don't want him to do that... so I'm not that concerned about it.

Declan Harris contributes to All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him on Twitter: @DecIanH.

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