PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia 76ers are 0-2 after squandering the chance to steal a win in their home opener against the Milwaukee Bucks. They made a valiant comeback effort but lost 90-88. More worrying than the Sixers' record is the fact that Joel Embiid has not been close to his usual level of dominance so far.

His 26-point, 15-rebound performance partly masked his rough performance in the Sixers' season-opening loss to the Boston Celtics. But against the Bucks, he had just 15 points on 6-21 shooting. All of his points came in the first half. He looked more engaged and had more room to operate against a less aggressive defense but lost that mojo quickly.

Head coach Doc Rivers defended his superstar after the Sixers' close loss to the Bucks. “He just didn’t have a great game. He’s human,” he said. “He didn’t have one of his better games. He did a lot of other things for us tonight. I thought, defensively, he was pretty good tonight.” Embiid declined to speak with reporters afterward.

The Sixers went down by as much as 11 points as Embiid floundered in the third quarter but they got back into the game in the fourth quarter using a lineup with P.J. Tucker at center. Embiid led all scorers at halftime and made some good efforts to close out on shooters on defense, which were improvements after his tough game on Tuesday. But once halftime ended, the switch flipped in the opposite direction. He committed brutal turnovers and didn't register a point the rest of the way.

The Sixers have gotten off to a disappointing start to the 2022-23 season and need Embiid to turn it around in order to prove they can be a legitimate playoff threat. It's very early in the season, so it's not time to write the team and its superstar big man off. However, Embiid has to step up in a big way soon.