It was a rough night for all members of the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night, including Joel Embiid, as the Toronto Raptors moved to within one win of the Eastern Conference Finals with a dominating 125-89 victory. Embiid, who has reportedly been battling injuries and illnesses throughout the playoffs, looked particularly bad for the second straight game.
The 25-year old All Star center finished with just 13 points and six rebounds, in addition to turning the ball over eight times. Naturally, Shaq and Charles Barkley let him have it during halftime and after the 36-point drubbing.
As seen in the videos embedded below, the Hall Of Fame big men criticized Embiid's body language and his overall performance in the series thus far.
"If you want people to remember The Process forever, you've got to step up," Shad said.
Barkley added, “He walks around like he’s on his death bed. He drains the energy out of the team."
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Following the team's crushing Game 5 loss in Toronto, Embiid told reporters that he "has to do more."
"It sucks," Embiid said, per ESPN. "I know I got to do a better job for us to win. I got to do the little things. When I'm needed to score the ball, I got to show up. Setting screens, I got to do a better job of rebounding the ball. So that's on me. ... I just got to do more."
The series now shifts back to Philadelphia for Game 6, in what could be the Sixers' final game of the season. That game, airing on ESPN, is scheduled to tipoff at 8:00pm ET on Thursday night.
