Joel Embiid drops career-high 50 points in Sixers' Game 3 win over Knicks

Joel Embiid delivered a classic performance in the Sixers’ Game 3 win over the Knicks, going bonkers from three to power Philadelphia to a 125-114 victory.

Here’s what I saw.

The Good

— There were quite a few issues for Joel Embiid in this game, mostly connected to composure and poise in the first half. And even with all the warts, he was basically the only thing standing between Philadelphia and a huge deficit at halftime. Tyrese Maxey was struggling from the field, Buddy Hield was petrified to be on the floor, Tobias Harris was Tobias Harris, and Kyle Lowry was basically a non-entity for the first 24 minutes.

When all else failed, clearing out the left side for an Embiid touch was their best shot at a basket or a foul. Over and over again, the Sixers loaded up the weak side to get Embiid the ball on the left block, and the Knicks had a whale of a time trying to stop him. Isaiah Hartenstein and Mitchell Robinson have done awesome work in this series, but they picked up three fouls apiece in the first half, unable to stop Embiid without reaching in, slapping down, or colliding with him on his way to the basket. Other Knicks players got caught in the vortex, naturally, with Embiid exploding baseline before late reach-ins put him on the charity stripe.

The third quarter was another matter entirely. Philadelphia went on a matchup-hunting mission, trying to draw out Hartenstein and Jalen Brunson as much as humanly possible. With the Knicks forced to live with a quick double on Embiid every time Brunson got stuck on him, Embiid’s job became fairly easy. Either you rise up and shoot over the much smaller man, or you swing the ball around the second the extra defender comes. He was able to work himself into a nice rhythm on some midrange jumpers, and then the damn broke.

Embiid has been a more willing three-point shooter since returning from injury, and he caught the holy ghost in the third period, rendering any New York defender useless by dropping bombs on their heads for about 12 consecutive minutes. In a series that has been defined by defense, the Sixers dropped a whopping 43 points on the Knicks in the third quarter, with 18 of those coming from the big guy. There’s no real defense for something like this:

The onslaught did not end at the third-quarter buzzer, with Embiid checking back in early in the fourth and putting poor Hartenstein in the torture chamber. Thibs’ boys sold out hard on Embiid’s jumper in the final stages of this game, and Embiid did an excellent job of reading their closeouts to attack the rim and earn more free throws. With Robinson ruled out for the game as a result of his ankle injury, New York was hanging on for dear life, with Embiid eventually leaving their carcass hanging over a guardrail on i95.

One game in the first round isn’t going to silence Embiid’s critics, but people have been waiting to see this version of Embiid in the playoffs, the guy with the jumper stuck on automatic who absolutely vaporizes your best-laid plans in the regular season. This is who it will take to beat the best of the best, and it was heartening to see him turn it up like this to swing the momentum back in Philly’s favor.

— Tyrese Maxey did not have the first-quarter haymaker in him that put the game on tilt early on Monday evening. With OG Anunoby chasing him all over the floor, it took a while for Maxey to get downhill with any regularity, and reliance on stepback jumpers from three will leave you wanting more often than not. But with the game (and the season) hanging in the balance, Maxey stepped to the forefront, supplying Embiid with the sidekick he needed to take one from the Knicks.

You could argue the game flipped for him on a defensive play — Maxey jumped a lazy entry pass for a pick-six, dunking the ball with nobody coming close enough to contest. He was off to the races from there — Maxey would hit a stepback three with Hartenstein powerless to stay with him, a transition layup on a Sixers stop, another stepback three, and the building began to sway in delirium. This crowd has seen quite a few Maxey heaters, and while this was just one stretch of greatness, it was enough to lift up the building and turn a divided crowd into a raucous home audience for the Sixers.

As importantly, Maxey’s speed forced the Knicks into some awkward positions off-ball, with New York trying to help out their bigs on switches to prevent easy Maxey drives to the hoop. Having learned at the feet of James Harden for a year, Maxey’s passing reads were damn near immaculate — behind-the-back passes to Embiid in the trail spot, skip passes to Kyle Lowry in the weakside corner, pocket passes in pick-and-rolls, and the necessary selfishness to hunt his own shot when the reads dictated it.

The Sixers have been searching for the right Embiid partner for his entire career. they appear to finally have one, as long as they can keep the big guy upright.

(And hey, how about the defense Maxey is playing in this series? He’s been about as good on Brunson as most of their “preferred” options and he came up with a clutch stop late in this one, standing up No. 11 and forcing a bad-pass turnover toward Philadelphia’s bench. Well done.)

— De’Anthony Melton’s return to the lineup was a potential spark for the Sixers, or so we told ourselves coming into the game. Evidently, all they needed was to give Cam Payne some more time, because he stepped onto the floor with more confidence and purpose than just about any guy on the roster.

Payne made an immediate impact in a miniature backcourt next to Kyle Lowry to open the second quarter. He found Nic Batum for a corner three on his first offensive possession, responded to a Hartenstein basket with a quick three on the other end, and hit his second three in less than a minute moments later, screaming and gesturing to the crowd along the way. With Buddy Hield looking completely frozen by this moment, Payne’s lack of fear was a refreshing contrast, a reminder that he’d gone on a deep and successful run with the Phoenix Suns a few years back.

With Mitchell Robinson in a ton of pain at the center spot and Isaiah Hartenstein in foul trouble throughout the first half, Payne made a huge impact from the point, pairing with Embiid in pick-and-rolls and dribble handoffs to put New York’s ailing big in space. Robinson didn’t have much interest in coming out to meet him and lacked the burst to close on him at the rim, so Payne and Embiid found a lot of success in the middle of the floor despite a lack of time and reps together.

— Kelly Oubre has had a monster series defensively, but after a strong stretch run as a scorer, New York almost completely neutralized him in Games 1 and 2. Thankfully for Philadelphia, he woke up in the first half on Thursday night, and did so without having to lean into the full chaos mode this game seemed destined for early.

Oubre’s end to the season was about strong process as much as results, with his scoring attached to better playmaking reads and an understanding of how to use his shot to set up others. That came roaring back against the Knicks — Oubre hit some big threes of different sorts, nailing a pull-up jumper in the first half before canning a catch-and-shoot look in the third quarter in the middle of Philly’s big run. Oubre played with more composure as a driver, setting up Paul Reed for a nice finish out of the dunker spot, and he flushed one going to his right (much to my surprise) with Donte DiVincenzo hanging on his hip.

— Kyle Lowry aka Mr. Little Things continues to be my favorite professional irritant. Nic Batum closed over Harris and made a huge defensive play in the final two minutes to help get it over the line. Good job by the role guys.

The Bad

— Tobias Harris’ career in Philadelphia appears to be coming to a close, and we have all spent enough time with him that the low moments have become familiar. A clanged three on a wide-open look, an offensive rebound that turns into a comical missed layup, blown switches, indecisiveness, it’s just a part of the deal when you’re watching a Harris stinker in the playoffs.

— You had to know the Sixers weren’t going to stop Jalen Brunson for an entire series. At least his first outburst came in a losing effort.

The Ugly

— I don’t understand how it is possible for the Sixers to be so comically inept at inbounding the ball. After two massive inbounding errors in Game 1 and 2, the Sixers managed to pull off another inbounds farce back home.

After the Sixers forced a Knicks airball and Precious Aciuwa fumbled the offensive rebound out of bounds, Tyrese Maxey grabbed the ball from the officials and prepared to throw the ball in quickly. The only problem was that his teammates did not seem to realize that they were required to help Maxey, who stood on the baseline screaming and gesturing to no avail. Nick Nurse was eventually forced to eat a timeout in order to prevent a turnover, and as we all should have learned in Game 2, timeouts are pretty valuable.

The attention to detail on these very basic basketball plays has been a disaster.

— The first quarter of this game was more about the shenanigans and replay reviews than the basketball being played. This was especially funny in light of what Tom Thibodeau said prior to the game — that both teams had played tough, physical basketball while keeping things clean.

You can’t really blame the Knicks for the way that things unfolded. Kyle Lowry’s foul on Donte DiVincenzo was at least an attempt to make a basketball play. While a lot of people were up in arms about Joel Embiid’s knee to Isaiah Hartenstein’s midsection, it was hard for me to judge intent on the first viewing.

On the other hand, we don’t need to mince words on the flagrant one Embiid picked up by grabbing at Mitchell Robinson from the ground — it was a dirty and dangerous play, one that could have easily led to a fight, an injury, or perhaps both. Grabbing at a player’s legs from the ground is an absolute cardinal sin in basketball, and I would argue it’s even worse coming from a player like Embiid, who knows better than anyone how an awkward landing can turn into a brutal injury. If somebody had pulled that on Embiid, the offending party would be a marked man in Philadelphia for the rest of his playing career.

It showed a complete lack of composure from Embiid, who was visibly mad about a couple of calls going against him on the other end of the floor. Through the first two games of this series, Embiid played with good composure and helped keep the Sixers marching in the right direction even when his shot wasn’t falling. But that insane flagrant was more like the guy we’ve seen in previous playoff runs, with Embiid having a temporary meltdown when they needed calm from their leader. He was lucky to get some grace from the officials.