Brown defends ill Embiid from 'grossly unfair' criticism
Battling an upper respiratory infection Tuesday, an ailing Joel Embiid put forth a second consecutive dud performance as the Philadelphia 76ers now trail 3-2 in their second-round matchup with the Toronto Raptors.
Sixers head coach Brett Brown doesn't understand why the All-Star center is getting criticized considering how sick he's been for the better part of the series.
"He was trying to do whatever he could to represent his organization and play basketball for the Philadelphia 76ers," Brown said following his team's 125-89 blowout loss in Game 5 at Scotiabank Arena. "I'm kind of disappointed. He gets shooken around, to me, too much. He's trying to play for us. He's trying to get out of bed with a significant temperature and come represent the organization. I think it's grossly unfair some of the criticism that he gets. I don't understand that.
"It's not ideal. You wished he were at shootaround. You wished he were in film sessions. He had a temperature for the last few days that's kept him in bed."
Embiid exited with 9:05 remaining in the fourth quarter with Philadelphia trailing 101-73. Raptors fans and team ambassador Drake viciously trolled the 7-footer as he walked off the floor by mimicking his airplane celebration from the Sixers' Game 3 victory.
The North remembers. pic.twitter.com/P4EemnPLto
— ESPN (@espn) May 8, 2019
He finished with 13 points and six rebounds on 5-of-10 shooting in 31 minutes of action but turned the ball over a team-high eight times. It marked the fourth time in five meetings with Toronto that Embiid failed to eclipse the 20-point mark, with his shooting percentage now at 38.3 percent for the series.
"I can't control my physical condition but I can control how much I push myself," Embiid said, according to NBC Philly's Serena Winters. "I've got to do more. I have to go back to Game 3 energy, gotta have fun."
The 25-year-old admitted to having the stomach flu for Game 2 and required an IV after failing to get much sleep ahead of Game 4.
Toronto can close out the 76ers on Thursday at Wells Fargo Center to advance to its second Eastern Conference finals in franchise history.