Joel Embiid Made Blunt Admission About Recent Play After Blowout Loss to Celtics

Embiid spoke frankly about his quality of play after losing big to Boston.

Joel Embiid has been battling injury all season / Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

The Philadelphia 76ers had a chance to begin a late-season playoff push on Thursday, returning from the All-Star break with as clean a bill of health as they could hope for and a home date with the Boston Celtics on the schedule. They failed to capitalize. Despite having all three of Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and Paul George for the 11th time all season, the Sixers got smoked on their own court by the defending champs and lost to the Celtics 124-104.

It was disheartening for Philly, to say the least. And it led to a brutally honest admission from the team's biggest superstar about his recent quality of play.

"I'm not as dominant as I was a couple of months ago," Embiid told reporters, per ESPN. While he went on to point out the impact he can still make while on the floor, the MVP center also acknowledged his play has dropped from even this time a year ago.

"The way I was playing a year ago is not the way I'm playing right now," said Embiid. "It sucks. ... I probably need to fix the problem, and then I'll be back at that level. But it's hard to have trust when you're not yourself."

It isn't necessarily a surprising thing for Embiid to say. He's openly stated he believes he needs surgery to fully fix what currently ails him, and the eye test confirms that; even after a week off, Embiid managed only 15 points, four assists, and three rebounds in 27 minutes on Thursday night. He only took nine shots in total.

He obviously is not the MVP candidate we saw on the floor the last few years, and it's become obvious enough that even Embiid will acknowledge it to media members.

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