PHILADELPHIA – Across the court, under the massive jumbotron and raucous cheers of the Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday night, Joel Embiid doubled down. Whether it was Tyrese Maxey or Kelly Oubre, or cult hero Nicolas Batum stepping to the opposite foul line, Embiid waded back to the defensive end, working with his 280-pound frame, to save himself from another frantic sprint across the hardwood.
The suboptimal fitness of the reigning MVP – who is still on his way back from a long-term knee injury – was evident with each of his labored breaths. He bounced the bunnies off the iron and held the ball too long and worked too slowly, as Miami’s swarming 2-3 zone gave him and his teammates all evening. And yet it was Embiid’s gutsy fourth-quarter performance, with the help of Batum’s blistering shooting, that shone through the muck of Philadelphia’s comeback from a 13-point deficit in the second half, beating rival Jimmy Butler and the Defeated the Miami Heat 105-104 and qualified. the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs and a first-round date with the New York Knicks.
“I wasn’t playing my best,” Embiid said. “I was out of place the entire game, up to and including the fourth quarter.”
That’s when Embiid scored a trailing three-pointer. He hurled a missile at Batum on the other wing. He hit another long ball. He finished a crucial and-one after an offensive rebound. Embiid’s final totals of 23 points, 15 rebounds and five assists required him to earn every score in the scorebook.
Miami overwhelmed all his touches, to the extent that Philadelphia struggled to feed him the ball behind a maze of limbs and the Heat’s on-a-string rotations. The first two frames, which saw the Sixers put up just 39 points at intermission, brought back familiar shades of Embiid and Philadelphia’s immense challenges against the Celtics during the final two bouts of last spring’s second round — all while his foil, Denver’s Nikola Jokić, waltzed through. the western side of the playoff bracket. These shortcomings against Boston are part of the reason why Doc Rivers no longer mans the Sixers’ sideline and why Nick Nurse, who previously coached Daryl Morey’s G League experiment in Rio Grande Valley, has been entrusted to help run from Embiid. and co. after second-round matchups they never topped.
This entire organization understands that a specific benchmark will ultimately determine this year. Fending off Miami and avoiding the eighth seed and opening round clash with the even more powerful Celtics offers a huge step toward achieving the goal that eluded Embiid during his first seven seasons. And then there will still be the loftier ambitions of claiming the Sixers’ first title since 1983, despite the franchise proudly claiming the third-most playoff wins in NBA history. This kind of dirty performance, especially when things are stalling, when Philly’s scoring spree against Miami was punctured by 11 first-half goals, is what a Sixers fan desperately wanted to see from the man at the center of their title hopes.
“I thought he was participating. I mostly thought he was joining late,” Nurse said, noting that Embiid also was repeatedly dragged into pick-and-roll action by Bam Adebayo on the other end of the floor. ‘It’s not so easy the last few minutes, [Tyler] Herro gets there at 100 miles per hour, and Joel has to be on those screens.”
Maxey overcame his own, albeit passive, approach that played a role in bogging down the Sixers’ early offense. He played hot potato with other members of his backcourt around the perimeter. The nurse kept barking for Maxey to rush past whoever was in his way and onto Miami’s 1-2-2 press, which returned to that stingy 2-3 in the half court. “I told him all the time to make one pass, get it back, put his head down and let the defense collapse,” Nurse said. With further advice from Batum and veteran guard Cam Payne, who recently helped Phoenix reach the 2021 NBA Finals and sank a huge third-quarter triple off the bench on Wednesday, Maxey was able to soar to the Cup and create like he did during his first All-Stars. -Star campaign.
The 76ers broke away as they got off to a 3-of-20 start from beyond the arc and connected on five of their next seven attempts later in the third quarter. Batum rained fire from the corners and above halftime, scoring a season-high 20 points on six 3-pointers. “He knew we had to crack that zone with perimeter shooting,” Nurse said. “He found some areas he could go to and just kept pulling the trigger.”
And yet it may have been Batum’s craftier contributions that cemented the Sixers’ victory. He came out of sight to bring up Maxey’s miss on a buzzer-beating fast break. With just under a minute left, he pressed Herro to force a foul in the backcourt. He then hit Herro’s jumper with 24.5 to play. “He’s been guarded from the little guys in the NBA, like Trae Young, to the tallest guy in the NBA at Wemby,” Maxey said. “Think about that.”
Philadelphia’s Kyle Lowry chased down a long, late rebound and guarded his good friend Butler, who suffered a knee injury that put his status for Friday’s game in question, with backyard physicality. Tobias Harris fought for each of his exceptional jumpers on both sides of the glass. Buddy Hield not only helped break the Sixers’ shooting slump, but also found Paul Reed for a rising alley-oop. The Sixers have veteran depth behind the top talent, showing why they were on pace to reach 60 wins before Embiid went down with a knee injury.
They will most likely travel north on Friday before facing New York on Saturday at 6pm ET. Jalen Brunson and a platoon of centers await you at Madison Square Garden. However, the Knicks played virtually zero zone defense this season under Tom Thibodeau. Embiid has time to recover. And the Sixers now have their next chance to prove they’ve built something lasting around the 7-foot-1 talent, to the world and right up against the rival franchise widely known to covet his services in the event of Philadelphia’s demise .
