By Mike Bennett
Joel Embiid is averaging 28 points a game against the Celtics in this playoff series, which the Sixers can close out tonight in game 6 at the Wells.
He is also averaging 9 rebounds per game.
And and he has had 13 blocked shots.
Even though he missed the first game because of an LCL injury to his right knee that most doctors have said would normally take 4-6 weeks to properly heal.
And that assumes Embiid would not be playing.
But he is.
He was just named the NBA MVP and has made the All NBA first team.
But none of that is good enough for David Murphy, a typist for the Inky whose columns have “opinion” tagged to them.
Truth is, Embiid is capable of a heck of a lot more than we’ve seen from him in any one game this postseason.
In fact, it’s the biggest reason to believe in the Sixers as they enter Thursday night with a chance to close out the Celtics at the Wells Fargo Center.
Embiid’s first four games of the series have mostly served as evidence that something greater lays within.
The first time out, he looked like a player who was two weeks into a four-to-six week recovery. That was concerning enough to wonder whether the Sixers could possibly hang with the second-seeded Celtics.
Then came his second game, when he was the only player in a Sixers uniform who didn’t look crippled by something. In his third game, he looked like a player who could turn the tide of a series. Then, in his fourth game, he turned that tide.
What comes next is anyone’s guess.
The Sixers enter Game 6 with an opportunity to do something that they’ve spent close to a decade building toward. For a guy who has happily made himself the namesake of “The Process,” a starring role in a home clincher would be something of a culmination. The Sixers haven’t been to a conference finals in more than two decades.
The second half of that stretch has been largely filled by Embiid’s attempts to justify the rebuilding process that led to his arrival here in Philly.
