Embiid struggles in his season debut as the Sixers lose to the Knicks

PHILADELPHIA — It took another three weeks, but Joel Embiid's regular season is finally underway.

The superstar center made his season debut Tuesday night against the New York Knicks at Wells Fargo Center after sitting out the first nine games to treat a left knee injury and then receiving a three-game suspension for shoving a reporter had.

And after a predictably up-and-down performance over 26 minutes – 13 points on 2-for-11 shooting from the field (but 8-for-8 from the free throw line) plus 3 rebounds, 5 assists and 1 block – on 111 :99 loss, Embiid said it would take time for him to regain the confidence to push off his troublesome left knee hard.

“It’s about confidence and trusting myself,” he said. “Repel… I talked about this a few weeks ago when I spoke to you guys, this is the mental hurdle I have to overcome. But I think I can still be pretty good without that, and I'll get there eventually.

“I don't know when. Maybe in the next game, maybe in two games… [but] I usually get it back pretty quickly, so I'm fine.

There's not much going on with the 76ers (2-8) right now, sitting in 14th place in the Eastern Conference standings and facing the undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday. It remains to be seen whether Embiid or fellow star Paul George will play.

The 76ers had previously made it clear that they wanted to prioritize the health of their veteran stars as the season progressed. But that was also before their injury-plagued start, as Embiid, George (bruised left knee) and Tyrese Maxey (hamstring strain) were all injured.

“I think it’s just a matter of us getting on the floor together and learning how to play with each other,” Embiid said. “But health is a big thing. I'm back, PG is doing pretty well, now we need to get Tyrese back and if we're all on the field I think we'll have a pretty good chance of winning some games.

The Knicks (5-5) don’t have those problems. They had the same starting lineup – Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns – as well as sixth man Deuce McBride, who was available for their ten games.

And while Tuesday began with so much attention on Embiid's season debut, the attention quickly shifted to Towns — the New Jersey native was playing his first game in the rivalry — who turned in one of his best all-around performances as a Knick.

Towns scored eight points in the first few minutes, finished with 21 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists and set the tone with his energy on both sides.

“Yeah, obviously Joel is a great defensive player,” Hart said. “But in the first game you need a while to get into the rhythm. [Towns] did what we needed him to do, came out of the gate, hit a few threes, attacked the rim and played the way we needed him to. We set the tone early, got big rebounds and we kind of benefited from that.”

Embiid had not played in a competitive match since the United States won gold at the Paris Olympics in August. He hadn't played for the 76ers since the Knicks ousted them in Game 6 of the first round of the playoffs in April.

And against the Knicks on Tuesday night, he looked like a player who hadn't been on the field for a long time.

He lacked his trademark touch on his jumper and finished 1-for-5 on 3-pointers. His offensive game was also slow, with Towns repeatedly managing to get his hands on the ball as Embiid tried to reload for a drive, causing him to have to reset.

And playing against the Towns and a Knicks offense that often had five players beyond the 3-point line, Embiid spent much of the night moving around the court and trying to keep up with New York's offensive firepower to keep up.

“He was definitely rusty,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said. “I think the condition showed up pretty early. I've seen him play through this before, how he reacted in the second half after taking a break. It seemed like it was working for a bit, but then I thought he was getting kind of tired again in the fourth.” . But again, it was probably to be expected that he displayed a pretty good competitive spirit for what he could do out there.

Ultimately, however, the result was another loss for the 76ers. And while the lenient standings in the Eastern Conference — where only the Boston Celtics and Cavaliers are better than .500 — give a team like Philadelphia time to put things together, the 76ers are hoping that process can begin now with Embiid's return.

“It’s a long season,” George said. “I do think that once we get all of our pieces together, we will make progress in the right direction. We will start to achieve some consistency and the chemistry will continue to be right. Right now it’s Joel’s.” [Embiid] first game back, Tyrese [Maxey] is not yet known, so we have yet to see this team in full. These are big pieces for us.

“We're all trying to do a little bit more than we should be doing, which is fine because we're trying to fill big gaps and gaps, but once we're at full strength I think we can do it .” Judge how we are doing.