Joel Embiid didn’t waste any time setting the tone for the 2026-27 season.
After the Philadelphia 76ers knocked off the defending champion New York Knicks 106-100 at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, Embiid said the defensive version of himself fans used to know may be back in full force. Philadelphia leaned on a strong second-half effort to pull out the win, and Embiid was at the center of it.
“I think this year is going to be back to All-Defensive team like in the past,” Embiid said, via PHLY Sports. “So, felt good. Yeah, moving great… I was all over the place, so I need to do that every game.”
That kind of statement matters because Embiid’s defense was once the calling card that made him the best two-way center in the league at his peak. He has earned three All-Defensive Second Team selections, with the last one coming in 2021, but injuries in recent years clearly took a toll on his mobility. On Tuesday, though, he looked far more like his old self.
The box score wasn’t pretty on the scoring side. Embiid finished with 13 points on 4-for-15 shooting, but he filled up the rest of the sheet with 11 rebounds, six assists, two steals, and three blocks. More importantly, Philadelphia outscored New York 58-42 in the second half after the Knicks had built a 58-point first half.
And for Embiid, the bigger takeaway was how the night felt against a team that has ended Philadelphia’s season in back-to-back years. The Knicks swept the 76ers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals last season, and beat them in six games in the first round of the 2024 playoffs.
“We’ve been going against these guys for the last couple of years,” Embiid said. “… Tonight felt a little different than in the past.”
He went further when explaining why.
“We have the talent,” Embiid said. “I think the focus in everything that we do, locked in every single possession into the game plan, and the adjustment… I mean, defensively, I think a lot of it falls on me.
I put it on me. If I want to be All-Defense like I used to be, that changes everything for our team.
So if I can play that way every single night, which I will, it changes everything.”
That goal is now right out in the open. Embiid, the 2023 MVP, seems determined to get back on one of the All-Defensive teams and make that part of his identity again.
The bigger picture around him has changed too. Philadelphia brought in Jaylen Brown and LeBron James in the offseason, giving Embiid a different kind of support system around him. The roster has plenty of firepower, and if the group starts clicking offensively while holding up on defense, it could become a nightmare matchup.
Embiid’s path to this point has not been simple. Since the 76ers drafted him No. 3 overall in 2014, he has played 491 regular-season games out of a possible 961. Injuries piled up, and he told The Athletic how much that wore on him.
“I went through a period the last few years, obviously, I’ve come down with injuries,” Embiid said. “I just hated coming into the gym.
Like, injuries, I can’t play, this and that. I was miserable, and depressed.
I just thought that’s the biggest thing we need - that, not necessarily joyful personality, but something else. And I’m a grown man.
A lot of it is on me to fight through it.
“But then again, it’s also nice when you have other people around you that felt that way and can boost you up a little bit,” Embiid added.
For now, the early signs are exactly what Philadelphia wanted. Embiid looks energized, and he says he has championship-level ambition in mind.
The next step comes Thursday, when the 76ers host the Cleveland Cavaliers at Xfinity Mobile Arena at 7 p.m. ET.
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