When asked about how his thumb injury affects his game against the Raptors, he said he wanted to focus on what he could. There is a time and a place for this.
According to sources, the Philadelphia 76ers star will have surgery on his injured thumb after the team plays in the playoffs.
The 76ers coach said that the MRI confirmed what they thought.
Treatment is the same. There will be no change. We knew what it was, so you just keep moving on.
In the first half of Philadelphia's win over the Raptors in Toronto, the center suffered an injury. He had 28 points in the second half and overtime of that game, including a last-second game-winning 3-pointer, but he had only 21 points and eight boards in Philadelphia's loss.
He said after the game that his rebound had been impacted by the injury, but he would continue playing through it.
After Game 4 of the playoffs, he said that his injury impacted his play, and that it was more than rebound, at the free throw, and also passing. The bigger story is that we lost the game. We have to do a better job.
When asked when the injury occurred, he admitted he had gotten tied up with someone and injured his thumb as a result. It is the latest in a series of injuries that Embiid has suffered throughout his career. The only time he was healthy for the playoffs was in the bubble at the Disney World Resort, where the 76ers were swept in four games by the Boston Celtics after Ben Simmons had his own season-ending injury.
He said he gets through these situations by leaning on his faith and controlling what he can.
I'm Catholic. God... I always put it in his hands. I don't focus on what can happen or what will happen when I go out there.
I just hope for the best and trust my teammates. This series hasn't been started yet. I was sick for the first two games. I fought through it.
It is the playoffs. Nothing will stop me. I have to keep going and hope for the best.
He joked that it would be a challenge for him to deal with the injury, and that he wished it had happened to his left hand.
The Toronto Raptors have been double-teamed on 37 plays in this series, with Philadelphia 76ers center and one of the three finalist for the Most Valuable Player award, as well as Denver Nuggets center and Milwaukee Bucks forward, being double-teamed.
As the series has progressed, Toronto has been able to force turnovers by double-teaming Embiid, as he has gone from having four in the first two games in Philadelphia to 11 in the two games in Toronto. Rivers said cutting down on turnovers was a focus of the walk-through on Sunday, as the 76ers try to close out the series.
Rivers said that the same thing was causing the turnovers. We walked over that today. It was frustrating because we know what they are doing and we have worked on it all year. We were late on a lot of things.
The traps are there. They are so obvious where they are coming from that we have to hurt them. We had, but now we are not, so we got to the right place.
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