It’s difficult to blame the Knicks players too much for their Game 3 loss to the 76ers following Joel Embiid’s 50-point night.
The New York Knicks came in to the Philadelphia 76ers’ homecourt of Wells Fargo Center for Game 3 with one goal in mind — to virtually seal the series in their favor. It has been a hard-fought series all throughout, so to take a commanding 3-0 lead would have been huge. However, the playoffs has its ebbs and flows, and on Thursday night, the Knicks couldn’t recapture the magic of their first two games as they suffered a 125-114 loss to the 76ers.
The first half was a dogfight; but in the end, Joel Embiid was too much for the Knicks to handle — in more ways than one. Game 3s present a prime opportunity for the road team to come out with guns ablazing, and that’s exactly what the 76ers did to start the second half.
They caught fire from beyond the arc in the third quarter, with Embiid, who mostly does his damage in the paint and from midrange, draining all four of his three-point attempts during the period. Meanwhile Tyrese Maxey, despite being hounded by OG Anunoby for most of the night, pitched in 10 points and six assists, including two threes, as the 76ers put the Knicks at bay with a 42-23 third quarter.
From the Knicks’ perspective, it’s difficult to point fingers as to what went wrong — especially when a lot of them were out of their control. For the sake of this exercise, the Knicks’ faults will still be pointed out, but not before there is a discussion of the questionable at best officiating that heavily favored the 76ers on the night.
Joel Embiid channels his inner Draymond Green
First of all, it’s worth mentioning that what Joel Embiid has done to stay on the court is remarkable. It wasn’t too long ago that Embiid sustained a meniscus tear that put his status for the postseason in doubt, so for him to recover from that just in time to head the 76ers’ playoff push is admirable. But now, Embiid has suffered Bell’s palsy — some sort of nerve impingement that disables movement on one side of his face.
In Game 1, clips of him being unable to blink from his left eye spread through social media, and in Game 2, his mouth began to droop on the same side — a textbook manifestation of the condition. Thus, for him to be the best player on the court en route to the 76ers’ 125-114 win over the Knicks is absurd, especially when he put up 50 points on 13-19 shooting from the field and 19-21 from the charity stripe in a must-win contest.
But that’s where the positives of Joel Embiid’s Game 3 performance end, especially from the Knicks’ point of view. Embiid, in addition to being his usual annoying self when it comes to drawing fouls, became a supercharged version of Draymond Green who appeared hellbent to inflict as much physical damage to the Knicks as he could.
On one possession in the first quarter, Embiid fell to the ground after seemingly exaggerating some contact he received from OG Anunoby. This freed up Mitchell Robinson for a wide-open look at the basket. Embiid then decided to grab onto Robinson’s legs, pulling him down to the floor in what was a very reckless play.
The 76ers star’s shenanigans did not end there; later in the game, he appeared to knee Isaiah Hartenstein on the groin, warranting an offensive foul, and then on a jumpshot attempt, Embiid swung his leg on an upward motion right towards Robinson’s midsection in a similar manner to how Draymond Green kicked Steven Adams back in 2016.
“Why don’t you like Joel Embiid?” pic.twitter.com/8iEy2em7bZ
— Hoops (@HoopMixOnly) April 26, 2024
Embiid might be thinking that the Knicks shouldn’t dish too much physicality if they couldn’t take it in return. But two wrongs don’t make a right. This Game 3 performance from Embiid as epic as it was to look at from the box score, will have an asterisk next to it, especially from Knicks fans.
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Knicks lose their way
Mitchell Robinson has proven to be a tough matchup for Joel Embiid, so him sustaining all those knocks that had him exit the game early made it more difficult for the Knicks to pull out a win. But the 76ers’ third quarter run came down to some brilliant shot-making from their two stars.
There’s not much any team can do when Embiid catches fire from deep. Switch the pick-and-roll and Embiid will take the little guy down to the woodshed, while Maxey can run circles around the big that’s on him.
But the Knicks got a lackluster performance from Donte DiVincenzo, who shot just 2-7 from the field and missed some very good looks. Bojan Bogdanovic didn’t provide a spark off the bench as well. But at this point, placing the blame on them is very much nitpicking. The 76ers caught fire and made some shots, while the Knicks couldn’t retaliate. It happens; in the playoffs, the game to game shooting variance can decide series, and on Thursday, the pendulum swung towards Philly’s favor.
