The Philadelphia 76ers have finally ended their poor run of form by winning against the Houston Rockets. While they had to break a lot of sweat for this 118-113 win against the Rockets it at least ended their three-game losing streak. However, they only defeated a depleted Rockets team which had multiple players missing.
Despite struggling in the first half it was 76ers star man Joel Embiid who came to his team’s rescue and steer them home with the win. He struggled due to his back injury which occurred recently as he went up against LeBron James. Although he ended the game with 31 points, 11 rebounds, 9 assists, 2 steals, and one block, he was not comfortable moving around in the first half.
The back issues have been no stranger to Embiid but the soreness increased when James fouled him in their clash with the 76ers. Since then his struggle has been evident and he also addressed the issue in the post-match interview where he was clear that the foul aggravated the injury but he had no complaints towards James as such.
“That’s when it started,” Embiid said, referring to Bron’s foul. “But it’s not alarming. As NBA players, we play every single night and the body is just sore. You just got to take care of yourself. It’s normal. It’s just tightness. As the days go by, some days it is tighter than usual, some days it’s not. Today, when we started the game, it was tighter than usual.”
The Cameroonian star clarified that as long as he goes home and works on his body he will be fine. It is certainly not an area of concern for the 76ers fans as he still played a big role in winning the match and also scored big.
It will be very important for the players of Philadelphia 76ers to remain fit if they want to maintain their first position in the Eastern Conference as the Brooklyn Nets are also breathing down their necks from the second position. But if Embiid gets back to his full fitness then there is no worry for the 76ers.