\u201cThe biggest thing I said to the staff I think that I\u2019m most happy with is that there\u2019s some rebounds or loose balls and he\u2019s coming away with a lot of that stuff,\u201d Nurse said after Thursday\u2019s 114-106 win<\/a> over the Cleveland Cavaliers. \u201cIt\u2019s down there and you\u2019re wondering who\u2019s going to get it, and all of a sudden Joe\u2019s ripping it out there and going up the side with it, and there we go.\u201d<\/p>\n Embiid might still be trying to find his rhythm offensively (he\u2019s shooting just 39% from the floor, and Charles Barkley referred to him on ESPN as the team\u2019s \u201cfourth option\u201d<\/a>). <\/p>\n But the early returns on how Embiid has played defensively and in those hustle aspects of the game have been promising. A lot of this Sixers season hinges on Embiid\u2019s health, that in order for this team to reach a championship ceiling, it needs him to make it to June feeling and playing the way he is in October \u2014 especially on defense.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: The Sixers wanted to prove they weren\u2019t \u2018front-runners.\u2019 They passed the first test in their home opener.<\/a><\/p>\n After the win over the Knicks on Tuesday, Embiid said he wanted to be back on the All-Defensive Team this season<\/a>, a list he has not made since the 2020-21 season. <\/p>\n \u201cFelt good, moving great. Felt like I was all over the place, so I need to do that every game,\u201d Embiid said. <\/p>\n When he spoke after the win over the Cavaliers, Embiid said there was one aspect of the game he is still trying to regain a feel for \u2014 rebounding. Through two games, he has averaged nine boards.<\/p>\n Sixers guard Jaylen Brown dunks the basketball late during the fourth quarter against the Cavaliers Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, in Philadelphia.Read more<\/a>Yong Kim \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n \u201cI just forgot the feel of rebounding and positioning,\u201d Embiid said. \u201cSo, that\u2019s something that I\u2019m working on \u2014 it goes back to everything really basketball related for me. I missed so much time that it\u2019s taken me a while to kind of put myself out there and be like, \u2018OK, this is what you\u2019re doing. This is what you\u2019re used to doing. Get comfortable and get back to it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Embiid will get back to it when the Sixers play twice Saturday and Sunday against the Bucks and Pistons, respectively. Well, he\u2019ll get back to it in one of those games. Embiid said he was going to play in one of the games and rest the other as he and the team manage his workload throughout the season. He wasn\u2019t sure as of Thursday night which game he would play.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m playing one of them. I don\u2019t know. They won\u2019t tell me,\u201d Embiid said. \u201cBut yeah, I feel good. So, whatever they tell me, I\u2019ll do it. And then if I don\u2019t agree with it, I might fight it, but I might not win. So, I kind of give them the freedom to do whatever they want.\u201d<\/p>\n That game Embiid sits will be another early test for the Sixers. Advanced statistics are always filled with noise until games accumulate and there are larger sample sizes, but through two games, the on\/off numbers for the Sixers with and without Embiid have been stark. When he has been on the floor, the Sixers have a net rating of 18.1 \u2014 the best net rating of any individual player. When he sits, that plummets to minus-30.4. There\u2019s a 39.7 points per 100 possessions difference in the team\u2019s defensive rating with Embiid on and off the floor.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: LeBron James\u2019 Sixers home debut was \u2018everything that I\u2019ve dreamed of \u2014 and more\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n That matches what Embiid and his teammates have said about his energy and effort so far on the defensive end. In this new season, Embiid has seemed happy on and off the floor. He called Thursday\u2019s comeback win a top five or top three moment in his career, right alongside his first home game and the night he received his Most Valuable Player award. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was different,\u201d Embiid said. \u201cI said last game, after the game, it just feels different. We just got to stay healthy and keep working with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n Watch the latest episode<\/p>\n Beat reporters Gina Mizell and Chris Hine break down their most intriguing quotes from LeBron James and Tyrese Maxey during the preseason, along with what they most hope to learn about this revamped roster during the first month of the season. Watch here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Watch the full interview below and subscribe to the Sixers Extra podcast on Spotify<\/a> or Apple Podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min To 76ers coach Nick Nurse, there has been one strong indication through two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[505393,64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-939113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-76ers-joel-embiid-tyrese-maxey-lebron-james-rebounding-cavaliers","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=939113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792834933_892_circle_outline_footer_light_theme.png\"\/)
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