Joel Embiid Lays Out Key Factor to Bounce Back vs. Bucks

What do the Sixers need to do to bounce back against the Bucks? Joel Embiid lays out the blueprint.

The Philadelphia 76ers refuse to look too much into their Tuesday night battle against the Boston Celtics. Considering it was just the first of 82 regular season matchups, the Sixers aren’t going to overreact to a single loss.

After falling short to the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday, the road doesn’t get much easier for the Sixers this week. On Thursday, they’ll face the Milwaukee Bucks, a team that just won an NBA title two seasons ago.

So, what's the key to their success when the Sixers take the floor at the Wells Fargo Center to host Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks? 76ers star Joel Embiid recently weighed in.

“Defense,” said the All-Star on Tuesday night. “Really, it starts defensively. It’s all about defense.”

Going into the 2022-2023 NBA season, the Sixers made it quite clear they want to become one of the NBA’s best defensive teams. In Boston, not everything went according to plan, as the Sixers allowed the Celtics to score 126 points, with 22 of them coming off turnovers.

Philadelphia’s offense could’ve been better on Tuesday. Embiid mentioned that he wasn’t at his best personally. Regardless of the hiccups the offense had, turning the ball over 14 times, the Sixers still accounted for 117 and received a 26-point game from Embiid.

“We scored 117, and we were not good offensively today,” Embiid continued. “We turned the ball over.. I was OK today, but I could be way better than I was. Offensively, we scored, and we were not even close to the level we can play at. Like I said, we didn’t get any stops all night. So, that’s where it starts. We got potential. Every possession, we just got to play hard and have each other’s backs.”

With a day off and an opportunity to review the film from Tuesday’s loss in Boston, Embiid and the Sixers look forward to having another chance to bounce back when they face their Eastern Conference rivals, the Milwaukee Bucks, for their 2022-2023 home opener. 

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.