Joel Embiid Plays 0 Minutes in USA Win Over South Sudan

Hope you took Joel Embiid’s unders, because he didn’t play a single minute in a 17-point USA win against South Sudan.

There wasn’t any information about any injury hindering Embiid, so it would seem as though he was simply glued to the bench. He played poorly against Serbia and South Sudan is a wing and guard-heavy team, so it’s quite possible that Steve Kerr thought Joel wasn’t a great matchup. They’re much more switchable on defense without Embiid out there, and they can really smother the opposition on the perimeter. That said, Embiid did play in the exhibition against South Sudan and put up 14 and 7 on 5-6 shooting while logging 18 minutes.

Keep in mind, Jayson Tatum sat on the bench for the entirety of the Serbia game. Same Tatum who just won a ring with the Celtics. So it’s not like Embiid is some blatant outlier type of snub. It looks bad from an optics perspective, but we’ll have to see if this is a one-off or indication of lineup plans for the rest of the tournament.

This was Embiid’s lone highlight from the evening:

Joel Embiid enters for pregame warmups to boos from the French crowd…

Embiid responds the only way Embiid does, by telling them to do it louder lmao pic.twitter.com/HzMAku1qjX

— Josh Reynolds (@JoshReynolds24) July 31, 2024

The post Joel Embiid Plays 0 Minutes in USA Win Over South Sudan appeared first on Crossing Broad.