Joel Embiid returned for Game 3 of the Sixers/Heat series wearing a mask, playing with a fractured orbital bone and a torn ligament in his right thumb.

He went for 18 and 11 in what was a rather pedestrian statistical game, but Embiid’s presence on the defensive end was monolithic, and he anchored a unit that held Miami to 79 points while Bam Adebayo shot 2-9 from the floor after starting the series 15-21 in games one and two in Miami.

“I didn’t think I had a lot of energy, honestly,” Embiid admitted after the game. “I was really trying to really get through it. Kind of, you just use my presence out there as a decoy. I feel like I pride myself really defensively. And I feel like that’s where my presence is really felt. On the defensive end. So that’s one of the main reasons why playing I thought I could have a huge impact.”

Afterward, Embiid wrapped up some unfinished business with Toronto fans, who were up his butt through the entirety of that first round series:

He’s right about the “fuck Embiid” chants. We’d never do that here! (sarcasm, we were yelling “Fuck Ben Simmons” like two months ago)

Regardless, Toronto fans did come off as unexpectedly boorish up there. A little uncouth and rough around the edges! The entire tone of that series was weird to begin with, with the typically calm Nick Nurse complaining about the officiating from the jump. Then you had “We the North” bitching and moaning about Embiid in the stands and it finally culminated in the airplane and ensuing elbow from Pascal Siakam, so now the Sixers find themselves down 2-1 to Miami with Embiid having to play through a broken face in Game 3. It’s not ideal, but here we are.

Anyway, you see how important Embiid is to this team. Nothing profound in saying that, but if anything, Game 3 should highlight the significance of his rim protecting prowess and reiterate how that part of his game is so much better than whatever you’re getting from Nikola Jokic on the defensive end these days.

“His energy, his rebounding, his ability at the basket,” said Doc Rivers of Embiid’s contribution. “I’ve said it all year. You could see his timing was off a little bit. But his presence defensively, I really don’t – I don’t think he gets enough credit how good of a defensive player he is and how much he helps us. And I thought tonight, it was a lot of that.”

Going out and playing through multiple injuries while pulling your team back to make this a series results in you being deemed the MVP, whether you win the award or not. The Adebayo/Dewayne Dedmon combo only shot 3-13 in this game and all three makes were outside of the paint, so there’s a small example of rim disruption that helps the Sixers big time.

Just look at the difference in Adebayo + Dedmon finishing in Game 2 (right) vs. Game 3 (left) –

Pretty significant activity in the paint, or lack thereof.

Here are a couple of quotes from Miami folks about Embiid’s impact returning to the series:

P.J. Tucker:

“They got Jo back so you knew they were going to be more aggressive. We missed a lot of shots that we make, guys got to their spots, didn’t make a lot of shots, they were aggressive but I feel like we need to be more aggressive, more intentional on our side is what we need to do.”

Jimmy Butler:

“You add Jo to any team, home or away, the game, the scouting report, it changes drastically. He’s been like that for his entire career but that’s not really the reason why we lost that game. We didn’t get back, we turned the ball over, we didn’t get stops, we fouled, there was a lot that went into that but he is a big part of it.”

Erik Spoelstra:

“He’s a big impact. This is what you have to expect – he is an MVP caliber player and he is usually in the running for Defensive Player of the Year, you know you have to be very intentional on both ends. We are not expecting it to be easy, they were a very good team all year, so were we. We are expecting him to be available all series and we’ll just have to figure it out.”