Joel Embiid returns from 29 game absence (knee) to lift 76ers past Thunder | NBA | UNDISPUTED

Joel Embiid returns from 29 game absence (knee) to lift 76ers past Thunder | NBA | UNDISPUTED

It look good to be honest with you but I could tell he’s working his way back in the shape he’s rounding himself into that but the great thing about it though is he wasn’t afraid to get down low he wasn’t afraid to bang he wasn’t afraid

To mix it up I mean he he looked fine but you could tell on the defensive side of the thing he was still kind of rusty not sure about some stuff y um offensively he just look he looked like a guy that missed two months he still

Had 20 look he was 12 for 12 from free throw right he hit every last free throw as you say free throw he got all those points he was um six of 14 from the field yep he had seven assist you know six boards he looked good I mean he looked

Like but you can tell there’s something that’s there the engine is trying to get cranked up it’s not at Full Tilt it’s like one of those old Mustangs probably used to have back in the Oklahoma days in fact my first car was a must you got

To turn it on it’s one of those deals and then eventually his engine is going to get going now the big question is where is it where does that leave the Philadelphia 76ers in the grand scheme of things they sit in the eighth spot as of right now which is the playin they’re

Game and a half I think out of the sixth spot can they catch the Pacers can they catch him that’s the question is he going to be able to finish the deal at the end of the season season to the point where they catch and get into that

Six spot now the longer that they play and if they can avoid Boston early somehow avoid them based on how it all shakes out then it may be Boston and Philadelphia in the end because of the way Milwaukee is showing up in playing right now although the Milwaukee

Situation without Dame last night made you scratch your head against the Wizards and we’ll obviously talk about that later on but we will uh you know I walked away yesterday when we started talking about embiid and what the Sixers could be thinking okay I I don’t know that they

Can but then watching him play last night even without Tyre Maxi in the lineup and Maxi plays a lot better when embiid is in the lineup that you know we may be talking about a Celtic sixer Eastern Conference Final depending on how the Sixers finish up

Okay but if it’s the first round I’m on the edge but you the longer that they extend their playoff run the more dangerous they can become because of him as he rounds into shape Al although in the past the farther they go the worse it gets well I

Mean that’s the past though it ain’t the same coaches it ain’t the same players it’s a couple of the same players but it’s a different different team different year I I just think the longer they go with him to round in shape the better chances they’ll have

Okay allow me to to say up front I was extremely skeptical about what I thought I would see from Joel embiid as he came back it was 8 weeks to the day after he had a scope surgery on a torn meniscus on his knee not a major surgery but a

Surgery nonetheless and the point about Joel is he’s never been dedicated to taking the utmost care of himself there’s no LeBron going on and he looked maybe a touch heavy last night but not like I thought he might look his his his trunk and leg looked kind of heavy looked a

Little heavy and his face looked a little heavier but whatever the point was Kean this man this is the most gifted 7 foot plus player we’ve ever seen on just pure offensive gifts I’ve never seen anything like this before and they were on full display last night and yeah he

Huffed and he puffed and and he got gassed a couple times but basketball courts are really large they’re they’re long and hard it’s called the hard wood and you’re running up and down on the hard wood when you’re not a big cardio guy to start with it’s not like he was

In the swimming pool or on the exercise bike going into last night he tried to play his way in shape through some practices and there was a big it was shocking because it was only two hours before the game that they suddenly announced he was good to go still gave

Him 30 minutes yeah but the NBA is not going to love this because they’ll have to look into this CU you got all the gambling situation with you got to declare you got to declare early you know what in or out and he was supposed

To be out until 2 hours before the game and all of a sudden they said well he’s now questionable oh he went from completely out to questionable and it was clear he was just ready to go I think they wanted him to show up to the

Arena and say I’m good well he didn’t show up he didn’t he didn’t go to shoot around yeah but I mean before the game two hours before the game and when he did he said I’m ready to go and was he ever I am blown away by how well he played

Last night under the circumstances because kesan if you told me he played 15 minutes I’d say that’s pretty good he played almost twice that yeah it’s close to 30 minutes and not only that now again let’s let’s be real about this let’s put it in perspective Oklahoma

City is playing without their two best scorers there’s no SGA Shay Gil Alexander and there’s no Jaylen Williams So you you’re down you’re your onew punch on offense and still Jaylen actually played no that’s the other one you got the wrong one it’s there two of

Them and the other one started in place of the better onei mhm yeah they got two but the the better one did not play the one from Santa CLA out here okay so the point is that that they had a shot to win but then to your point that they

Didn’t even have Tyrese Maxi yeah so I’m I’m still a little skeptical because his chemistry with Joel can be good but it’s it’s going to be different and Paul Pierce kept making the point it’s so late in the year they’ve been playing a certain way and now they got to play

Joel’s way and he is high usage man you got to run the whole offense through him but it clicked last night and it clicked in the fourth quarter last night and by the way I I said the other day it was yesterday I think I said I love Kelly UB

I just like to watch him play because he’s he he play he played well last night you know what he’s what I call a near star he may not be you can’t qualify him as a star but he’s got some Star Quality he’s sort of like d’ Angelo

Russell where you say he’s got Allstar skills to him but he’s not an Allstar right and in the fourth quarter he makes all four of his three-point shots well you you needed all those but then to your point in the fourth quarter Joel only made one or four shots but but he

Took the game over at the free throw line he goes eight for eight at the free throw line he’s the greatest seven foot or above free throw shooter we have ever seen it ain’t even close yeah I really don’t see him Miss much he’s a 90% free

Throw shooter are you kidding me and it before he got hurt this year he was on Pace to score more points than minutes played and no one’s ever done that except it’s another one of those records Wilt Chamberlain it’s another Wilt record and he’s got Wilt in him that’s

How much he can dominate a game so he steps on the floor out of shape by his standards a lot of people think he’s always out of shape and and and it’s he’s got he’s got that basketball Gene in him where he just can just he just

Figures out how to get up and down the floor and play basketball he he does and I think rounding him into shape and get Maxi back this is a different team it’s a different team you just want to try to extend the season as long as possible to

Get him there you do you know but now you still got where they got left eight games whatever about eight games the schedule is they they should if they if they’re any good they should come out way ahead on this this last remaining gam okay so I like their pieces I I

Actually I if you give me UB and and obviously with maxi back and Tobias and they added Kyle Lowry and now they got campaign he was in the starting lineup last night they added buddy heel they got Nicholas Batum in the trade for Harden they still got Robert Covington

To play defense I I don’t know this team is intriguing to me and with Joelle all of a sudden the Intrigue level in the Eastern Conference playoffs shoots way back up because I said yesterday it felt like it’s kind of Bost in or bus and and I’m not I don’t trust Milwaukee and

We’re going to talk about them as you say and they keep losing on the road and and I’m not sure about Dame’s ability to to to sort of Unite with Giannis down the stretch in the big moments but the point is all of a sudden this team looks

Like it could it could measure up to the Celtics if if he’s going to get back in sync and in stride to get to the Celtics let’s just assume what if it happened immediately what if it happened then they going to lose well I he ain’t going

To be in shape yeah you’re not going to be in shape well at least you got eight games to go you and he said he’s going to keep they got one back to back and he said he might miss the second game but they gonna play Eight Games over the

Next two and a half weeks okay right yeah that’s about right yeah but I could make the case back to you if his skill level is All In Shape which it is is he didn’t lose any of that last night I I can make a case to you that he’ll be

More rested for the Post season than he’s been in a long time and that’s a big plus for them it’s it’s just it’s still a short amount of time skip he’ been gone for two months and they do have a lot of new players

But I just like the feel of what I saw no I I do too if they can get him in shape and get him going yeah and they can somehow avoid Boston early then I think that they well to your point if they just keep on keeping on if if they

Could win out that they might just catch the Pacers and get out of the you know get get out of Harm’s Way early on that they could maybe do it differently they could take that path that that you’d want them to take to the Conference

Finals yeah but but the thing is even if they even if they had to play in the play in they where they’re sitting at now what they GNA get they’ll get one game to get in not two yep but that still gives them a little bit of rest

And then eventually you get into that seven game series and you try to extend that they’re they’re an eight now right so they would get they’d be in the the two game slot right as opposed to 910 one game right well but it’s S8 get

To play you you get two shots right yeah but I’m assuming they beat they beat the heat is what I’m assuming okay that’s what I’m assuming yeah I’m assuming they can beat the heat and they get the one game so he gets a little bit of rest and

Then you extend that seven game series with whoever you play let’s say they you know you take that thing to six games to round in the shape yeah there’s got to be a plan here it can’t be just get into the playoffs and then draw this this

Bosted team or yeah or or Draw uh Cavs team and then all of a sudden you gone yeah you want to try to find the the the the weakest opponent that will extend your seven game series as much as you can yeah the key for him is he despises

Planing in that brace that he had to wear last night and if if he could he had a brace yeah did he he figh I couldn’t I couldn’t see so if he could get through eight games and and get to the point where he didn’t need the brace even psychologically needed then he

Should be good to go and I’m going to say this again I only speak from experience because I’ve had three of these scop did you ever any Scopes two of them two on knees not not huge deals not I don’t I can’t question how I was back fast

That’s all I can say yeah it was different though it it’s different I guess I mean you torn I’m not yeah I’m not 300 plus PB 6’9 and all the point is we’re not talking about torn ligaments if you tear your Li rupture a ligament now we got a whole different

Conversation going on because you ain’t coming back for no playoff different sport different mentality yeah you know yeah i’ I had one in the offseason I had one during the season where I only missed one game in week and I was back the next week that’s what should happen

Because that’s how good they are with that scope and obviously you you you don’t have to go in there with an incision you can just stick the little tiny camera and go in you get like three dots and they can go in and snip it it’s everybody else I mean everybody’s bodies

Are different they heal differently you train differently to get back in in your rehab you know it’s just it’s different okay so we’re just talking for him about the meniscus which is the cartilage which is the cushion in your knee that keeps the Bones from touching each other

And and that’s a problem too cuz the more surgery he have I don’t know which KN it was but or if he had uh surgery on those knees before but in a minute as he as they continue to carve that thing out it’s going to hit bone bone at and then

That’s when that’s when the swelling really kicks in you got to keep getting it drained cuz when it tears it just has a little flap that’ll get caught in your mechanism and it’ll just kill you you just can’t even you you scream yeah you walk and stuck and it sticks but now if

You go in there and just snip off the little torn flap which just happened then he’s good to go and I I know my man Wayne and I went back and forth Little Wayne about Joel can he come back and I said I think he can but then it’s a

Matter of in what condition yeah well I don’t know it’s like he was born in basketball shape that’s what he looked like last night because that was listen that was impressive that was a highlevel battle to The Bitter End in in a in a Breakneck NBA game and he he took it to

The end and by the way we got to take one quick look for those who didn’t see it how about the steel he pulls off on Josh giddy at the end of the game and this is still a two-point game at this so long though and he just snakes it

Right out of his hand and he’s Off to the Races then Chad has no he looks so big right down the court they Oklahoma City actually challenged this and lost The Challenge on it because they thought chat was set and I don’t think he was

Set I moving Joel just ran him over but that’s what Joel does he just punishes no yeah he was pounding in the guys last tonight which psychologically it helps him you know helps him because now he’s down there and he that’s what it’s all about when you when you get injuries

It’s all mental at that point now you got to just figure out can you fight through things mentally and not be afraid that I’m going to reinjure something so not only did he finish the last eight minutes of the game but his two free throws put them up one and then

His next two free throws off the the steel that that clenched it so he makes four straight free throws and the catch and shoot the one shot that he did making the fourth quarter he caught it boom little little putb bunny right there right at the top of the key listen

We keep talking on here if if LeBron could somehow pull off this Championship that would cinch it he’s the goat well let me one person said that skip I think somebody echoed that I just said that that’s a conversation that’s going to come up you loved it I’m going to put

Joel in this conversation because he won an MVP last year it looked like he was on his way to going back to back MVPs this year before he got hurt and my point about Joel embiid is once again he needs a championship to to justify all this to validate how his his greatness

Every Everybody Needs sure they do but this this could be no but this could be a LeBron esque run to a championship you know like what if they get hot they got the pieces to go win it I I never said that skip that they didn’t but everybody

Needs a championship be great to validate well you got one well I’m I’m fine I I’m you went along for a great ride it did well I ain’t worried about it all right we got to talk women’s college basketball because of course Caitlyn versus Angel shattered the alltime

Ratings record why was that we discuss next thanks for watching Undisputed fans do you want more highlights from the show make sure to click that subscribe button for all the exclusive content from Undisputed

Skip Bayless and Keyshawn Johnson discuss the Philadelphia 76ers win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Joel Embiid’s first game since January 30th. Embiid scored 24 points in 30 minutes and was visibly exhausted postgame. Skip and Keyshawn assess how Embiid looked in his first game back.

#Undisputed #NBA #sixers

SUBSCRIBE to get the latest UNDISPUTED content: http://foxs.pt/SubscribeUNDISPUTED
Listen to UNDISPUTED on Spotify: https://foxs.pt/UNDISPUTEDSpotify
The all-new FOX Sports App, built for the modern sports fan: https://tinyurl.com/y4uouolb

► Watch the latest content from UNDISPUTED: https://foxs.pt/TheLatestOnUNDISPUTED

▶ First Things First’s YouTube channel: http://foxs.pt/SubscribeFIRSTTHINGSFIRST
▶ The Herd with Colin Cowherd’s YouTube channel: http://foxs.pt/SubscribeTHEHERD
► SPEAK’s YouTube channel: http://sprtspod.fox/SUBSCRIBEtoSpeak
► The Skip Bayless Show YouTube channel: http://sprtspod.fox/SUBSCRIBESkipShow
► What’s Wright? with Nick Wright YouTube channel: http://sprtspod.fox/whatswright/youtube
▶ The Carton Show’s YouTube channel: http://sprtspod.fox/SubscribeCartonShow

See more from UNDISPUTED: http://foxs.pt/UNDISPUTEDFoxSports
Like UNDISPUTED on Facebook: http://foxs.pt/UNDISPUTEDFacebook
Follow UNDISPUTED on Twitter: http://foxs.pt/UNDISPUTEDTwitter
Follow UNDISPUTED on Instagram: http://foxs.pt/UNDISPUTEDInstagram
Follow UNDISPUTED on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@undisputedonfs1?lang=en
Follow Skip Bayless on Twitter: http://foxs.pt/SkipBaylessTwitter

76ers beat Thunder 109-105: Embiid scores 24 pts in first game since Jan 30 | NBA | UNDISPUTED

Undisputed
https://www.youtube.com/c/UndisputedOnFS1