Instant observations: Sixers pick up critical win over Wolves

6 spot in the Eastern Conference for the time being. Here’s what I saw. A different way to win with Embiid Joel Embiid complained about an illness in the aftermath of their loss to Miami and missed Wednesday’s win over the Wizards after missing their film session in the morning and tweeting through it in the afternoon.

After all the shenanigans, I had no idea what to expect out of him after a two-game absence with his return against Rudy Gobert, a very good defender who Embiid used to punk at the peak of his powers. What we got was stranger than I could have imagined: Embiid looked every bit like a sick man on offense, slow to everything and unable to even get a shot off cleanly, but he moved with force and played some of his most inspired at-rim basketball all season. I didn’t know he had any games like this left in him, honestly.

If Embiid had just missed shots, I would have chalked it up to it being one of those nights at the tail end of a long season. But Embiid was slow in every regard on the offensive end, dragging his feet on offense to bring the whole operation down with him. He wasn’t impactful as a screener, he played hot potato with the ball, and seemed completely out of it with his timing.

Embiid managed to turn a great ball movement possession into a blocked jumper at the top of the key, because he spent so long staring down the shot that he missed Naz Reid creeping into his space. Later, he had a shot from the same spot where he looked to be fighting himself, the mechanics coming unraveled as he clanged it off the rim. His struggles made the Wolves’ defensive choices pretty straightforward.