Joel Embiid has been playing like trash lately. And that's not a knock on the player, that's actually according to him.
The Philadelphia 76ers center struggled against the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night as his side lost 113-102 to the NBA's new giants. He converted only 5 of 17 attempts from the floor en route to a 10-point night.
To make matters worse, Raptors centers Serge Ibaka and Jonas Valancunias both outscored him, with the pair registering 18 and 26 points respectively.
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"We turned the ball over a lot and we gave up a lot of offensive rebounds and I sucked," the big man told reporters following the loss, per NBC Sports.
"I wasn’t making anything. In fact, the last few games I’ve been so trash so I’ve got to figure that part out if I want to help the team win some games."
Philly head coach Brett Brown applauded the way the Raptors handled his center defensively.
“They did a good job of going at him, double-teaming him,” he said. “They did a good job of pushing him off the block probably two or three more feet farther than we’d hope. They did a good job of pressuring him in general.
“That’s part of it: He’s that good. He is having a year that warrants high-level accolade discussion, but tonight was just a down night for him and I got to help him.”
“It’s hard,” Embiid added. “I’m trying to figure it out. My place on the floor. Sometimes I’ve got to space the floor. A lot of times with the way our plays are set up I tend to spend a lot of time on the perimeter. That’s just an adjustment we got to make with the coaches. Figure out how to keep me down low. I don’t know … changing the plays or whatever.
“I got to do a better job. It’s on me. I haven’t been efficient and got to make sure I work on my game.”
What This Means
While he played a bad game and his production has taken a slight hit, the player is being overly hard on himself. Overall, he has had a fantastic season so far but can't expect things to be perfect all of the time - there will be periods like this.
As for his numbers, that's likely due to the inclusion of Jimmy Butler in the team, something he will adjust to in due time.