Time after time, trip after trip, he would tug at his shorts. He would sigh. He’d stretch out his leg. He’d double over at the waist. Time after time, trip after trip, Joel Embiid looked like was about to call 911, call for an EMT to tend to what seemed to be a million multiple miseries.
And time after time, trip after trip, Embiid did something to drag the Philadelphia 76ers closer to the main draw of the NBA playoffs, closer to a date Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. He’d drive, and he’d finish. He’d find an open teammate. He’d hit the offensive glass, make the follow-up, make the foul shot after he was fouled. He’d knock down an open 3. And then another.
Somehow, at the end of a game that seemed destined for another of those unbearable studies in Heat Culture, at the end of a season when he spent 34 games as the league’s clear-cut MVP, then disappeared for two months, then returned to lead a late-season push, here was Embiid. Here he was, playing at maybe 65 percent efficiency, putting his foot down. Refusing to let the Sixers lose.
“When you have him on your side,” Tyrese Maxey said, “you like your chances.”
The numbers were relatively ordinary by his advanced standards — 23 points, 15 rebounds in 38 minutes — but when you speak of a force like Embiid in the dying minutes of a game like this, the numbers only tell the preamble of the story.
Time after time, trip after trip, he seemed on the verge of passing out. He looked the way Jim Brown used to look on all those Sundays in the 1950s and ’60s when defenses would stalk him all over Cleveland Municipal Stadium, pounding him and piling on him. Brown would sometimes look like he had to be peeled off the field, or carried off it on a stretcher. Then he would rise, to a knee, then to two feet, and he would stagger to the huddle, then limp to the backfield, then take a handoff and mow down six tacklers for a 17-yard gain.
That was Embiid Wednesday night at Wells Fargo Center, inspiring the Sixers to the final buzzer, to a narrow 105-104 win over Heat Culture.
“I told them before the game that we would need everyone tonight,” Embiid would say after the game. “And tonight everyone made sure we would win the game.”
This was true, to a degree. Nicolas Batum came off the bench to make six 3s, all of them daggers in the Heat’s collective chest. Maxey had 19 points and six assists. Buddy Hield made a couple of big shots as the Sixers erased a 13-point third-quarter deficit. All of those guys will be a problem for the Knicks starting Saturday. So will Kyle Lowry, a first-team Knicks killer. So will Kelly Oubre Jr.
The Sixers know, at full health, that they would probably be the two-seed in these playoffs. The Knicks probably know that, too. The Sixers have won nine games in a row, a streak that began the day before Embiid returned from knee surgery. They are the hottest team in the league and will arrive at 6 o’clock Saturday on a serious heater after turning the always-satisfying trick of humbling the Heat.
And they have Embiid. At his best, he exists on an NBA plane where only Nikola Jokic is a fellow occupant. He isn’t at his best. There were some observers who thought maybe Embiid played it for all it was worth for added dramatic effect. There were those who used to say that about Brown, too.
But where he usually rules on power and strength, Thursday he was all about grinding, all about saving himself, all about picking his spots.
“What he did,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse, “speaks for itself.”
And now he’ll come to New York, and he’ll try to join the rostrum of Philly athletes who have wormed a place into New York’s sporting nightmares, a basketball version of Chase Utley, a basketball version of DeSean Jackson, a basketball version of Bobby Clarke.
It means the kind of challenge that Tom Thibodeau craves, putting time in his defensive laboratory to counteract one of the league’s dominant offensive forces. It means Mitch Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstein and Precious Achiuwa have to find clever ways to neutralize him without relying on their 18 fouls to give, since Embiid makes 88 percent of his free throws.
There is a faction of Knicks fan that surely spent much of Thursday dreading a Round 2 with the Heat. They were probably right to do so. But the alternative isn’t exactly arriving as a 16-seed in the NCAA Tournament. Nine wins in a row, now 31-8 in games Embiid has played this year.
Saturday night at the Garden he’ll likely tug at his shorts, he’ll sigh, he’ll stretch out his leg and he’ll double over at the waist. Time after time, trip after trip. He’ll look on the verge of collapse. Don’t bet on it.
