76ers star Joel Embiid isn’t handling Philadelphia’s Game 7 loss against the Celtics too well.
After taking a 3-2 series lead, the 76ers lost back-to-back games as Boston defeated Philadelphia, 112-88, in a do-or-die contest Sunday at TD Garden. Boston now will face the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals.
Yet, the league MVP himself opened up in a blunt fashion. Embiid, who scored 15 points in the season-deciding loss, felt as though there wasn’t a whole lot of assistance provided by Philadelphia beyond James Harden. The two combined to score 24 points, shooting 8-of-29 from the field with neither finishing as the leading scorer for head coach Doc Rivers.
“I still believe that me and (James Harden), we got the chance to win but it’s gonna take more than us,” Embiid told reporters, per NBA TV video. “We all gotta look at ourselves. I gotta be better and I will be better. That’s what I’m focused on. All of us, we gotta come back and find ways to just keep improving and help the team.
“Can’t win alone. I can’t win alone. Me and James, we just can’t win alone. That’s why basketball is played five-on-five. So we just need everybody to just keep finding ways to get better and we’ll be fine.”
Embiid finished the playoffs averaging 23.7 points, which was the biggest scoring dropoff from a regular season (-9.4 points) after an MVP-winning season in NBA history, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
That feeling of frustration with the 76ers was also present after Game 6 when Embiid revealed that he felt Philadelphia’s failure to feed him in the fourth quarter played in Philadelphia’s loss.
“I didn’t touch the ball at all,” Embiid said, per CLNS Media video.
