Despite the way things ended, Joel Embiid is optimistic about his health moving forward

Context matters when breaking down sports.

“A banged-up Joel Embiid lost in the second round of the NBA Playoffs,” sounds like a familiar story, but that’s only if you ignore everything that’s happened over the last two-plus years.

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Sure, there was plenty of disappointment after the Sixers were crushed in Game 4 Sunday by the New York Knicks to complete a sweep, but there was also plenty of optimism. They made the second round of the playoffs after a 24-win season. They came back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Boston Celtics in the postseason for the first time since 1982. Tyrese Maxey took another leap and VJ Edgecombe had one hell of a rookie season.

And Joel Embiid played basketball. At times, he even played it at an extremely high level. If you weren’t sure that could happen this season, you weren’t alone.

“I thought I was done. That’s the best way to put it,” Embiid said. “I came into this year not knowing where I was going to be, how long I was going to play, if I was even going to play, based on how the knee was the last few years.”

The former MVP played in 38 games this season and eight more in the playoffs. After a rough start, his numbers from his last 29 regular-season games were, well, Joel Embiid-esque. He averaged 29.6, 8.4 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.2 blocks in 33.5 minutes a game. He shot 50.9% from the field and 37.6% from three during that span.

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Of course, the appendectomy came at the worst possible time, with Embiid trending in a positive direction health-wise and the team beginning to coalesce. When all seemed lost against the Celtics in the first round, Embiid played his guts out in Games 5, 6 and 7 to complete a historic comeback from a 3-1 deficit.

After that, there simply wasn’t much left in the tank. Embiid was dealing with a right hip issue, which he seemed to indicate was a complication from his recent surgery. Remember, he returned just 17 days post-op and it’s a procedure that cuts through muscle. It was pretty remarkable he returned at all, let alone carried his team to a Game 7 victory in TD Garden.

The most positive news from Embiid…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/despite-way-things-ended-joel-030348471.html

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Publish date : 2026-05-11 03:03:00

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