Sixers prepare to play without injured Joel Embiid in second-round series against Miami Heat

Following a victorious Game 6 in Toronto Thursday night, Doc Rivers was already mentally preparing for a “hellish” bus ride to Buffalo. The 76ers took the roundabout path back to Philly so that players and staff would not need to take a COVID-19 test to re-enter the United States, which is required when crossing the border by air but not by ground transportation.

That voyage became even worse when the Sixers learned that the inadvertent elbow delivered to the face of Joel Embiid by Pascal Siakam in the waning minutes of the blowout win over the Raptors had resulted in an orbital fracture and mild concussion. The injury will keep the MVP finalist out for an undetermined amount of time.

The Sixers’ first step in preparing to play without Embiid occurred Saturday, when they reconvened on the practice floor the day before flying to Miami for their Eastern Conference semifinals series against the top-seeded Heat that begins Monday night.

“We’ve just got to figure it out,” forward Tobias Harris said. “This has been a resilient group all year, so nothing has changed in that regard. We’ll prepare the same way and we’ll wait for the big fella. …

“At the end of the day, it’s the playoffs. Nobody feels sorry for us.”

The Sixers will be missing arguably the NBA’s most dominant player in a series that also features Miami center Bam Adebayo, who this season finished fourth in voting for the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year award. Embiid, meanwhile, led the league in scoring during the regular season (30.6 points per game) while also averaging 11.7 rebounds, a career-high 4.2 assists, and 1.5 blocks per game. He totaled 33 points, 10 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 steals in Thursday’s close-out win, despite playing with a torn thumb ligament suffered in Game 3 of the series.

Rivers would not tip his hand Saturday on who will slide into the starting lineup at center, but said the Sixers will fill the position throughout each game “by committee.”

Paul Reed was Embiid’s backup in the first-round series against the Raptors’ long and athletic roster — and played some minutes with the starters in Game 6 because of a rotation tweak by Rivers. Veterans DeAndre Jordan and Paul Millsap were also both the backup at points during the regular season, after Andre Drummond was traded to the Brooklyn Nets as part of the blockbuster James Harden-Ben Simmons deal. Rookie Charles Bassey also practiced fully Saturday after dealing with a shoulder injury.

“We may need all four guys, even if it’s to burn minutes,” Rivers said. “The one thing Miami is, if they’re nothing else, they’re clever and they’re foul magnets. So that’s a concern for us.”

Added Jordan: “You’ve got to be a pro, because situations like this come up. And if you’re not ready for it, thinking that you may not play, then you’re not ready. But [Millsap] and myself, we’re staying ready. We were doing a lot of things to make sure that our bodies and minds were prepared for anything.”

The Sixers hope to disperse Embiid’s 30 points per game across multiple players. Stylistically, Rivers said the offense will be more “James [Harden]-dominant,” and that he will need to put the right shooters and rollers around the All-Star guard to make him an effective scorer and distributor with the ball in his hands.

Playing with pace and creating space in the halfcourt will also be critical, the coach said. Harris added that he, Harden, and Tyrese Maxey are likely to be more involved in pick and rolls. Rivers said he expects the Heat to trap more on those actions, because “they don’t care who rolls. They know it’s not Joel.”

“It’s always adapting and figuring out how the other team’s playing,” Harris said. “What they’re taking away, what they’re allowing and for us to capitalize on that, regardless. All three of us [Harris, Harden and Maxey] are always ready to be aggressive.”

Coincidentally, the last regular-season matchup between the Sixers and Heat, a 113-106 Sixers win on March 21, was played without a resting Embiid (and Harden). Though Rivers expects that those key absences impacted the Heat players’ mentality that night, the coach added, “We saw some things that we may be able to do without Joel.”

Overall, the Sixers went 6-8 without Embiid this season. The bulk of those occurred during a November stint in COVID-19 health and safety protocols, and the victories included a dramatic overtime win over the Memphis Grizzlies in late January that was arguably the most entertaining game of the Sixers’ season.

Harris said Embiid, who was not at Saturday’s practice, is “obviously upset” about the injury but in good spirits overall. It has already been a frustrating and unlucky postseason for Embiid, who vowed to play through his thumb injury and has battled a multitude of injuries throughout his career.

It is also the latest dose of adversity for a Sixers team that has navigated plenty this season. The Ben Simmons saga. Implementing Harden following the All-Star break. Playing road postseason games without perimeter defensive standout Matisse Thybulle because he is unvaccinated against COVID-19 and ineligible to travel to and play in Canada.

Those hurdles are why Rivers trusts the Sixers’ “belief system” as they head to Miami without their MVP finalist.

“We’ve got to hold the fort,” Rivers said. “This is why we pay everybody. … We’ve had a lot of stuff thrown at us this year with guys out. Maybe this is another test in that. But we’re going nowhere, I can tell you that. This team will be ready.”