Joel Embiid has revealed his recent injury layoff left him feeling depressed, having returned to the court to help the Philadelphia 76ers past the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday.
Embiid missed over two months of action after suffering a knee injury during a game against the Golden State Warriors at the end of January.
Having undergone surgery to repair the lateral meniscus in his left knee, Embiid sat out 29 straight games with the Sixers slumping from 29-17 to 40-35 in that time.
The Sixers have gone 14-27 without the reigning NBA MVP overall this campaign, and they were buoyed by his return on Tuesday as he finished their 109-105 win with 24 points, seven assists and six rebounds.
Opening up on the toll his injury took, Embiid said: "Usually I just tell myself, 'move on to the next one', get better, and then fix it, but this one took a toll mentally, being depressed, it was not good.
"So, I'm still not where I'm supposed to be, especially mentally, but I just love to play and love basketball and I want to play. Any chance that I have to be out there, I'm going to take it.
"For some reason this injury was just disappointing. It was depressing. It took me a while to get over it, and I still haven't gotten over it. So I've just got to take it day by day, look at the positives.
"I'm back. So, hopefully every single day, I'll try to get better and get back to myself."
Embiid was limited to just 29 minutes on the court, but only Kelly Oubre Jr., with 25 points, bettered his return as Philadelphia boosted their playoff hopes by making it back-to-back wins.
"Minutes-wise, that was probably where I thought we would end up," head coach Nick Nurse said. "I thought we had a good start and it mapped out something like that, minutes-wise.
"He scored some, I thought he passed the ball really well, but when we start amping up our defense in the last six minutes he was down there again.
"Some of those drives didn't look as productive, so that to me is where I really thought he impacted the game. He looked pretty good for not playing for a couple of months, that's for sure."
'We'll be better for Game 6' - Lue backs Clippers to make big improvement
Tyronn Lue insisted that the Los Angeles Clippers will be "better for Game 6" after their worst game of the series against the Dallas Mavericks.
The Clippers lost 123-93 in Game 5 on Wednesday, giving the Mavericks a 3-2 series lead as they prepare for the next meeting in Dallas.
Los Angeles struggled against the Mavericks' defence, and at one point, missed 16 straight 3-point attempts.
Asked what went wrong for the Clippers on Wednesday, Lue said: "We just didn’t play well, all round. Offensively, defensively, we just didn’t play a good game. We know that.
"Playoffs, you have to win four games. We didn’t play our best game; we understand that and we all understand that collectively – we’ll be better for Game 6.
"Not making shots, not defending, had some gambles that really cost us early in the game. It was a two-point game, we gave up three gambles, and it became eight points, that got them going.
"We weren’t good on both sides of the basketball, we had a bad game and, to give them credit, they played well.
"We understand how we need to play. We got into our stuff a little slow. We didn’t shoot the ball well; we didn’t play well either – it kind of goes hand in hand. We didn’t play the style of basketball we need."
The Clippers have been in this position against the Mavericks before, going down 3-2 during the first round in 2021.
On that occasion, they won to force a Game 7 and went on to advance to the semifinals.
Shaquille O’Neal, however, does not think the Clippers are consistent enough to beat the Mavericks.
"They tried to play hero ball at the end by shooting those threes. Paul [George] had a surge of scoring late, but too late by then,” he said to NBA on TNT Sports.
"That's why I've never really been on the Clippers bandwagon because those two guys [George and James Harden] are too inconsistent for me. You can't go from 33 to seven."
Irving hails Doncic's resilience after star turn against Clippers
Kyrie Irving was amazed by the "resilience" of Luka Doncic after he led the Dallas Mavericks to a pivotal Game 5 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers despite suffering from injury and illness.
A knee problem that has been troubling Doncic since Game 3 was wrapped with ice by midway through the fourth quarter, but he scored 35 points to lead the Mavs to a 123-93 rout of the Clippers.
That gave the Mavs a 3-2 lead in their Western Conference first-round series and put them on the brink of a series victory.
Doncic had 14 points in the third quarter as Dallas extended its lead to 25 before taking an 89-69 advantage into the fourth. He shot 14 of 26 from the field and finished with 10 assists and seven rebounds.
It was the fifth time in his postseason career that Doncic had produced a performance with at least 30 points and 10 assists, extending what is already a team record.
And Doncic also tied with Michael Jordan for the most consecutive 20-plus point games on the road to begin an NBA playoff career. He has now done that in 15 consecutive games.
Maxi Kleber hit five 3-pointers and Irving added 14 points and six assists on a great Wednesday night for Dallas.
"I always speak on his resilience," Irving said about Doncic after the game, per ESPN. "He's not feeling a hundred percent, but he's still going to go out there and play.
"For me as a teammate, I enjoy that. I enjoy being around somebody like that that's going to push themselves but also be smart and still make an impact on the game – and still empty his clips, as we like to say.
"Even though he is not feeling well or he's not able to be a hundred percent, he's still able to lead our team in his own way."
The Mavericks will try to close out the Clippers at home in Game 6 on Friday. Doncic admitted that, given his condition, he would not have played in Game 5 if it had been a regular season contest.
"It's the playoffs," he said after playing while feeling unwell as well as managing the pain in his knee.
"When you start the game in the playoffs, it's a different thing. There's a lot of adrenaline, a lot of emotions. So you just keep going."
Clippers coach Tyronn Lue knows finding a way to stop Doncic will be key if his team are to reverse their fortunes.
"We knew at some point Luka was going to have a Luka game," he said. "We are not going to hang our heads.
"We have got to win four games. We go to Dallas, Game 6 on Friday and we will be ready to go."
Celtics are 'learning from mistakes' after series win over Heat
Jayson Tatum claimed that the Boston Celtics are learning from their mistakes after securing their place in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
The Celtics are into the semifinals following a 4-1 series victory over the Miami Heat after winning Game 5 118-84 on Wednesday.
In taking the series, the Celtics avenged their 2023 Conference finals loss to the Heat, who routed them in Game 7.
Tatum praised the team’s attitude during the win, saying: "That's how it should be.
"We should be learning from our mistakes and things we could've done better and applying it to the next season, because we're trying to have a different outcome this year."
Jaylen Brown and Derrick White each scored 25 points, while Sam Hauser had 17 points and Tatum added 16 with 12 rebounds for the Celtics.
Despite a record-breaking shooting performance by the Heat in Game 2, they struggled to gain a foothold in the series. They missed 26 of 29 from 3-point range and were out-rebounded 56-29 in Game 5 while playing without the injured Jimmy Butler, Terry Rozier and Jaime Jaquez Jr.
The Celtics were also without a key player, as Kristaps Porzingis missed his first postseason game with a right calf strain that will keep him out for at least a week.
Brown insisted that the Celtics have proven that they were never reliant on any single player.
"I think we just have to continue to play our game like we've been doing our whole career and continue to show our growth by trusting our teammates," he said.
"I think if we're going to win, we're going to win as a team."
Up next for the top-seeded Celtics is the winner of the Cleveland-Orlando series that the Cavaliers lead 3-2.
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