NEW YORK – Joel Embiid didn’t wait until the end of the first game to end his evening.
As Madison Square Garden roared and the action stopped with one final foul, he left the court and ran through the tunnel with 2.1 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the game still technically in progress, but already finished. Perhaps it was for the best; he had already avoided misfortune once on Saturday evening.
The Philadelphia 76ers’ opening game against the New York Knicks was another reminder of how fragile their current experience is. Their 111-104 loss wasn’t just the result of Embiid missing two minutes and 37 seconds in the second quarter, as a franchise and fan base were left to wait – once again – holding their breath over the health of their star. There were rebounding issues, wayward 3-pointers and Miles McBride. Nothing is ever that simple, but with the 76ers it can tend to be binary.
With Embiid, they are contenders. Without him, they are not.
So when Embiid appeared to re-injure his left knee late in the first half, the same one in which he tore a meniscus that required surgery in February and kept him out sidelined for two months, everything was on the line again. Even the game in which he was injured was proof of his greatness.
Stuck above the foul line, unable to dribble and with 7-foot Mitchell Robinson on top of him, Embiid faked a shot, stepped up under the Knicks center and threw a lob off the backboard, ending it with a terrible smack at the top of OG Anunoby. But when Embiid landed on his left leg, he went straight to the ground in pain and stayed there for a while before heading back to the locker room.
“One hell of a play and then ‘Oh shit,'” Kelly Oubre Jr. said, recounting the moment. “It was a great piece. It was an incredible piece. Yeah, man, it’s scary. Our bodies are what we use as vehicles here. It’s tough, and he’s 7 feet and 300 pounds. …It’s tough, man. I couldn’t even imagine being 7 feet tall and being able to move like a guard and do the things I can do without being that tall. It’s tough, but he’s a warrior.
Embiid returned to start the second half, and was not expected Saturday night to receive further imaging on his left knee. But Embiid, who came out of the locker room without limping and without speaking to the media, and his health are the difference in Philadelphia. He is the reigning NBA MVP. It was still clear on Saturday, even in defeat. He scored 29 points, grabbed eight rebounds and had six assists, and had an outsized impact even while missing 14 of 22 shots.
The Sixers outscored the Knicks by 14 points when Embiid was on the court and were outscored by 21 when he wasn’t. Embiid played 37 minutes, and it still wasn’t enough in a game where everything went well for Philadelphia.
The Sixers got a resurgent performance from Kyle Lowry, who scored 18 points — only the second time he’s scored that many since early December — and helped them come back from a 12-point halftime deficit. They hounded Jalen Brunson with big bodies and physical wings and held him to 22 points on 8-of-26 shooting. Their own All-Star point guard, Tyrese Maxey, scored 33.
But the Knicks have found reinforcements in unlikely places. McBride scored 21 points coming off the bench. Josh Hart, a shifty and sometimes reluctant long-range shooter, made 22 and made two 3s late in the game as the shot clock wound down to earn the victory.
“I’m not sure I’ll take those possessions back,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said. “I think we were doing what we wanted to do there.”
Philadelphia clawed back to 58-46 at halftime despite limited Embiid. He came back in the third quarter, but he didn’t look quite the same. His movements were limited. He barely tried to contest several Knicks shots at the rim. He remained in the offensive perimeter until the fourth quarter, when he drove into the post. He stayed on New York’s side of the court during Philadelphia’s free throws.
The Sixers have also adapted. They turned to a zone defense in the third quarter to try to spoil the Knicks’ offense and stuck Embiid near the rim. This went against their tendencies throughout the season. Philadelphia had played zone on just 5.8 percent of its possessions this season, according to Synergy Sports, but played 24.8 percent of the first game in one.
With Oubre, Nicolas Batum and others hounding him for part of the game, and Embiid along the backline, they managed to slow down Brunson, who had one of his worst outings of what has been a season All-NBA level.
“It wasn’t like we were blitzing him, sending two, trapping him and taking the ball out of his hands,” Nurse said. “I mean, we were sitting in our zone for a lot of it, but our zone is moving to — you were obviously trying to guard some guys well. And give them credit. I think we probably agree with some of these shots, but… they hit them.
The zone, however, left the Sixers vulnerable on the boards, and with Embiid limited, the Knicks flocked for a second chance. New York led the NBA in offensive rebound rate this season and grabbed 23 offensive rebounds on Saturday – tied for the fifth-most by a team in a playoff game since the start of the 2019 postseason. That left the Sixers searching for answers , even after the match.
“Yeah, I don’t know,” the nurse said. “I have to watch it. Again, I think you’re saying, “Why don’t you block.” »But again…I just have to come up with a plan for them. We need to look into it. Obviously, we talked about it a lot. That’s a key thing they do, and we didn’t do a very good job of it tonight.
The Sixers will need to reevaluate before Game 2 and come up with a new plan. This will, of course, revolve around Embiid, whose health will continue to weigh on this season. It remains their cornerstone. On the planks. In the painting. At the elbow. In everything they do.
All the Sixers need is for him to play.
(Photo by Joël Embiid: Elsa / Getty Images)