It all was unfolding in the most disastrous of ways. Joel Embiid, the reigning NBA MVP, was about to see his legacy tarnished again -- perhaps irreparably so this time around -- as he committed turnover after turnover, sinking the Sixers as they attempted to save their season in Game 5 of their first-round series against the New York Knicks.
The Madison Square Garden crowd was absolutely delighted. They serenaded Embiid with expletive-laden chants for the better part of 48 53 minutes Tuesday night, and despite his postgame comments in which he affirmed that he enjoys his back-and-forth with the New York crowd, he certainly did not appear to handle the chaos well.
Due to a combination of massive levels of fatigue, impressive team defense by Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau's unit and poor decision-making, Embiid racked up nine turnovers in Game 5, tied for the most he has committed in any game, regular season or playoffs, in his NBA career -- only matching one game in March of 2018.
Despite turning the ball over more than he had ever done in a game in more than six years, shooting just 7-19 from the field and looking as gassed as ever -- so much that, in an elimination game, he sat out for more than a minute of game action more than halfway through the fourth quarter. Once he stood up from the bench and walked gingerly onto the court to begin overtime, he was able to find a different way to take over the game.
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Nurse laughed when asked about his decision to sit Embiid for that brief stretch.
"He just had a really, really, really uncharacteristic stretch of plays," Nurse said. "Just felt like we just had to grab him something and try to at least talk to him and gibe him a minute or two to settle down."
For as much as Embiid has struggled at times as a scorer in his playoff career, despite all of the injuries he has played through his defense in the postseason has been outstanding.
Knicks All-Star point guard Jalen Brunson began overtime on a personal 5-0 run after Tyrese Maxey tied the game with two of the most incredible shots in Philadelphia 76ers history. First he hit a three out of a pick-and-roll against Embiid, and then drew the lumbering seven-footer on a switch and blew by the fatigued and hobbled center en route to the basket for a layup. The Sixers were once again on the ropes. Only this time, Embiid came through.
Embiid was able to score four points in overtime, and they were all crucial. But where Embiid really managed to take over the game was on the defensive end of the floor. The Knicks attacked him at the rim time and time again, and he just got stop after stop. It was an absolute clinic from Embiid, perhaps the best few-minute stretch of defense he has played in years if not his entire NBA career.
They say defense is half the game, but we all know that is not exactly true. It is easily conceivable for a player to take over the game with their scoring, or even their passing. But leaving a massive imprint on the outcome of the game just by stopping the other team from scoring over and over is tremendously rare. Only the great ones are capable of reaching that caliber of defensive dominance. Embiid is one of those, and he proved it with his masterclass over the final minutes of overtime in a win-or-go-home contest.
A simple question: when you are defending someone on the perimeter, what is it like to know Embiid is behind you?
Tobias Harris: "[Embiid] is one of the best defenders in the league... he's able to protect the rim, and on a lot of pick-and-rolls that they're doing, we're keeping him back and just funneling guys to challenge him there, so he's done a great job of that, and that was huge for us in that overtime."
Kelly Oubre Jr.: "It's everything, man. That was the scheme going into the whole year, was be ultra-aggressive on the perimeter, funnel everybody and everything into our 7-foot-2 beast down there, and obviously he's fighting his battles right now, but at the end of the day the will that he has and the will that we all have to just try to get stops and give that effort is everything that we need."
Embiid most certainly has Maxey to thank for saving his season and perhaps even saving his legacy. But once that door reopened, Embiid found a new way to take over a game. Maybe the Sixers would not have needed to play five extra minutes had Embiid been something resembling his best self as an offensive player. But they most certainly would not have emerged victorious by the end of that overtime had he not become a stopper of epic proportions in the game's final moments.
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