Without Embiid, Sixers rely on their depth
As is his curse, Joel Embiid Thursday felt too much pain somewhere in his 260-pound body to play basketball.
NEW YORK >> As he has, as he will, as is his curse, Joel Embiid Thursday felt too much pain somewhere in his 260-pound body to play basketball. That it was the playoffs didn’t matter. That no deeper examination has revealed serious injury didn’t matter. That there is no guarantee that he will play Saturday didn’t matter. He didn’t play. The knee again. There have been other issues in his five NBA seasons. But that knee has been bothersome for a while.
“Same old, same old,” Brett Brown shrugged, prepared for the possibility.
Same old. But newer, better, more versatile 76ers.
Without Embiid, and even with starting center Greg Monroe overwhelmed, the Sixers basically scored whenever they wanted and defeated the Brooklyn Nets 131-115. It’s how they are built this time, structurally and emotionally. It was how they were designed through a season of adjustments and more adjustments. It’s why they are dangerous in their tournament, and not just on its Eastern side.
“We have answers,” Brown said.
They have answers, plenty of them, enough that even when a player their coach has stressed is their “crown jewel” doesn’t play, it barely registers internal stress. So with that veteran sense of calm, the Sixers simply moved the ball around the perimeter quickly enough to generate good three-point looks. And even the one player who won’t do that and may never do that, Ben Simmons, was confronted with that wilting Nets defense, he regularly powered inside to score.
“When Joel is off the court, and in general, the Ben Simmons formula this year was that he was an NBA All-Star as a point guard with the ball,” Brown said. “And lots of those environments that he has shown he is capable in were sort of generated by himself, sort of organic offense. Whether I need to force feed some of those things, for instance if I need to post him more, I can.”
Brown rolled and posted Simmons, and that worked, as the point guard went for 31 points.
more, I can.”
Brown rolled and posted Simmons, and that worked, as the point guard went for 31 points.
Brown ordered a more perimeter attack, and the Sixers shot 40.7 percent from deep.
Brown trusted his major in-season additions, Jimmy Butler, Tobias Harris and Boban Marjanovic, and every one showed why they have made the Sixers so much better than they were a year ago, when they made it only five games into Round 2.
Harris made all six of his three-point attempts and scored 29 points. Butler had an efficient 16 with seven assists. J.J. Redick, benefiting from the Nets’ defensive lapses, shot 5-for-9 from distance and had 26 points. And the Nets have yet to find a solution to Marjanovic, who again was effective from mid-range and had 14 points.
“We had different types of scorers last year,” Brown said. “And they were reliant on the pass. The team that we had last year was very reliant on being freed up. They were reliant on player and ball movement, screening for Ersan (Ilyasova) or Dario (Saric) or Cov (Robert Covington). These guys this year can play by themselves. They really can create by themselves.”
For two days, the Sixers and Nets basically braced for a night of indoor football. Even though he would apologize for it again before the game, Embiid had aggravated the Nets with a Game 2 elbow to the jaw of Jarrett Allen and a post-game laugh about the matter, causing both Brown and Kenny Atkinson to brace for 48 minutes of holding, grabbing and elbowing.
That’s not what happened. Rather, the Nets played defense in retreat, unwilling or unable to defend the arc even on a night when the Sixers were without their most powerful inside presence. And their Game 1 plan to allow Simmons freedom to move, which they used to take an early-series lead, was ineffective Thursday. Instead, Simmons attacked when close to the basket.
“The phrase I keep speaking to our guys about,” Brown said, “is psychological stability.”
That’s what the Sixers showed, even without their most dominating player.
“Obviously without Joel, we had success,” Harris said. “I tried to be aggressive and get some good looks. I just let it fly. And we stayed confident from there.”
If the Sixers are to win an NBA championship, they are going to need Embiid to play more than two out of three games. As for the first round against the sixth-seeded Nets, which they lead 2-1, they not only can survive, but can use it to their advantage. Every time they win, Brown has it figured, it buys them more time for Embiid’s knee pain to ease.
Even before the game Thursday, Embiid claimed that his pain had begun to improve. If so, and because the Sixers have recaptured the home-court advantage, and because they don’t really need at this point to subject Embiid to the anger of a crowd that did not have an opportunity Thursday to further condemn him, he may not even play in Game 4 Saturday at Barclays Center.
They are good enough to win games in this series anyway.
“They play their way and we play our way,” Atkinson said. “And it’s a matter of who can do it better.”
Thursday, the Sixers did it better in every area. It’s the way they are structured. It’s how dangerous they can be.