Joel Embiid could have sat this one out, and maybe he should have, and maybe the old version of himself would have. But he didn’t, and even after a 114-110 Sixers loss to the Denver Nuggets in which he was plagued by foul trouble and fatigue and a loud, flagrant fall flat onto his back, you got the sense that Embiid would not have decided differently even if the result had been preordained.
“We have to measure ourselves against these types of opponents,” Embiid said after the loss on Monday night.
Whether he meant that in the informal or royal sense is for you to decide, but the measuring tape tells a vastly different tale depending on which one you choose. By the end of the night, two things were clear: The Sixers had the best player on the court, and they were the second-best team. That’s a good news/bad news sort of thing that may not augur well for the fast-approaching postseason.
