Embiid ‘enjoys these moments,' pain and all, provides a signature playoff performance

BOSTON — There’s a tall tale, Mad Libs nature to Joel Embiid’s injury history. A snake bit him somewhere along the way and just kept biting. 

Embiid’s perspective on it all is telling. As he shared following a season-saving 33-point, eight-assist night Tuesday in the Sixers’ Game 5 win at TD Garden over the Celtics, Embiid is guided by a desire to play. 

That’s it, really. 

“The one thing about me is I’ve dealt with a lot of stuff over my career,” Embiid said after the Sixers trimmed their first-round playoff series deficit to 3-2. “I don’t complain. I just want to give as much as I can every single time I step on the floor. I know a lot of people might have takes that I might be lazy or whatever, but every single time I’m on the floor, I want to play as hard as possible. I want to do whatever it takes to win a basketball game, whether it’s on offense, on defense. 

“I just want to play basketball, whether (or not) I’m in good shape physically, mentally or whatever. I just want to enjoy these moments being part of a basketball team that’s trying to accomplish something, and that’s to win every single game.”

Embiid’s norm of playing through pain and discomfort popped up again in Game 5. He added an injury scare to his infinite list when he exited with a limp in the third quarter, but Embiid only missed a little under three minutes of action. Jaylen Brown appeared to inadvertently bump Embiid’s knee after driving and pump faking inside. 

“I just heard that he kind of banged knees with somebody,” Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said. “Knee on knee contact.” 

Asked about the moment, Embiid gave a straight-faced reply: “I’m good.”

So … what happened? 

“I don’t remember,” he said with a bit of a mischievous grin. 

Postseason health trouble is habitual for Embiid. Right knee; left knee; orbital fractures; concussions; Bell’s Palsy; gastroenteritis; appendicitis. While not immune to pain, he must have his own definition. 

Sidelined for 17 spring days this time around as he recovered from an appendectomy, Embiid returned Sunday in the Sixers’ woeful Game 4 loss. Despite a cold shooting start to Game 5, he was dominant. Embiid logged 39 minutes, scored efficiently on a night he went 0 for 5 from three-point range, and anchored the Sixers’ much-improved defense. 

“Give him a lot of credit, man,” Nurse said. “He worked really hard to get back from this procedure that he had and played a lot of minutes. And I was super impressed by him on the defensive end tonight.”

On offense, Embiid has set an impossibly high bar for himself. He may not average 40-plus points over a 16-game stretch again, but Embiid still often looks equipped to respond to anything defenses throw his way. 

“When we have him, we’ve got a trump card,” Paul George said. “There’s no one that can guard him. I don’t care who it is, there’s no one that can guard him. … He can take a game over. And obviously, we have to adapt when he doesn’t play. It’s a collective thing to find those baskets, those easy opportunities. But when he’s on the floor, he’s going to create a mismatch.”

At his free-flowing peak, Embiid draws immense attention. He then shoots over a crowd, feeds open teammates or powers through the clump of bodies trying to stop him.

“You’ve got to find the right mix,” he said. “To start the game, it was a little bit more outside than in. In the second half, it was both. Inside, I feel pretty good about my chances of going 1-on-1 against anybody in this league and I don’t think I can be stopped. So I just took advantage of what they were giving me. And then once they made the adjustment, do the best job posssible and just be aggressive. 

“And me being aggressive, it opens up shots for everybody. It’s finding the right balance. It wasn’t all just post-ups. There was a bunch of mid-range. I still feel like my touch is not there. … Got to keep working on it so I can have a better game next game.”

Game 6 will be Thursday night on the Sixers’ floor.

Barring any extreme issues between now and then, Embiid has more basketball in front of him.

“It means a lot,” he said. “I pushed very hard to come back and try to help as much as I can. I’m glad we won (tonight). I didn’t want to go home and think all summer about what could’ve been if I was healthy going into the playoffs. So one more day and one more game to try to make it back here. 

“That’s the mentality. I’m just thankful to be in a position where I get to play. I don’t know how long I can do this, so I just want to enjoy as much as possible.”