Guarding Philly big man no ‘walk’ in park

PHILADELPHIA — The Nets still feel Philadelphia center Joel Embiid was traveling in Saturday’s playoff opener. But they know they’re not going to get help from the officials, so they will have to slow the MVP favorite themselves.

“He’s only got one pivot foot, I’ll just say that,” coach Jacque Vaughn said. The Brooklyn coach had suggested that Embiid — who had 26 points in Brooklyn’s 121-101 Game 1 loss on Saturday — should’ve been called for traveling and three seconds.

Still, Nic Claxton — who started against Embiid on Saturday and presumably will again in Monday’s Game 2 — knows better than to expect a whistle.

“They’re not going to call that,” Claxton laughed after a pregnant pause. “It’s not going to be called. You’ve just got to guard him. I don’t see that being called. I just don’t see it.”

Claxton had 10 rebounds and three blocks on Saturday. But he had just five points in a quiet 2-for-4 outing, misconnecting on multiple lobs that contributed to Spencer Dinwiddie’s four turnovers.

➤ Dorian Finney-Smith has played the fifth-most minutes on the Nets since joining the team in February, and went 2-for-2 from deep in Game 1 but logged just 17:38 with Brooklyn using 6-foot-9, 255-pounder Day’Ron Sharpe to combat Embiid.

“I think he only played 17, 18 minutes and that was us playing big and so that was just a by-product of that,” Vaughn said. “If you’re going to play Day’Ron those minutes, play Nic his minutes there’s only a certain amount of dudes who can be out there. I thought his ability to pick up [James] Harden early was good and anytime he’s making 3s for us is a plus for sure.”

Sharpe had six points, six rebounds and four assists in 17:24 — the second-year center’s longest stint since March 21, other than the reserve heavy regular-season finale when Vaughn sat his starters and used the bench.