I was ready to anoint Joel Embiid as king of this town last week. Historically, Philadelphia isn’t much for royalty. But I was willing to make an exception, that the founders of the United States were not in the summer of 1776. The NBA playoffs had started and Joel Embiid had delivered.
The Sixers led 3-0 over the Toronto Raptors in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. The third game was amazing. Embiid hit a three-pointer from an inbound pass, with 0.7 seconds to play into overtime to give the Sixers a 104-101 lead. It was a shot in the same arena where Kawhi Leonard defeated the Sixers with a buzzer beater in Game 7 and Embiid wept over it. The crowd had been chanting “Fuck Embiid” earlier in the night. He hit the shot and reacted like a little kid celebrating. It reigned.
I watched it about 10 times that evening and another 10 the next morning. I listened to the radio calls, heard the sad announcers from Toronto, maybe even a Spanish one? I’ve read everything I could find about the game. I found an incredible statistic. In The Athletic, Rich Hofmann noted that “Embiid has been shooting 22 of 52 from 25 feet with less than four seconds on the shot clock this season.” That’s 42 percent in… Desperate Three! I’ve said out loud several times, “That was the moment he went from star to superstar.” I compared it to when LeBron scored 25 points in a row. After two blowouts in Philly and a thrilling win in Toronto, I was confident the Sixers would make a run this postseason. They would win in four or five games in the first round and move on.
Glad I didn’t write any of that down! Since then it has been revealed that Embiid has a torn ligament in his right thumb. The Sixers narrowly lost in Game 4 in Toronto and then were absolutely glued out of the building in Game 5 in Philly. Embiid hasn’t played his best since the injury. Harden isn’t doing enough. Today’s Game 6 in Toronto scared me. I’m confident the Sixers will be the first NBA team to lose a 3-0 lead in a playoff series. Oddly enough, Doc Rivers, who looked so smart after the Sixers whipped the Raptors onto the backs of transition buckets in Games 1 and 2, also sounds like he thinks so.
The Pistons didn’t win the title in 2003, Doc! The Spurs won. Detroit won it in 2004.
“I wish you guys would share the whole story with me, okay?” he said, rattling off reasons why the three teams he’d coached to 3-1 series leads ended up losing that series. I particularly like how he notes that his recent loss in a situation like this was indeed a choke, but is also quick to acquit himself by adding that “anything can happen in the bubble”. The only feeling I can get from this quote is that he sounds scared.
That makes two of us. Local media also seem scared; The Inquirer ran a “Where would that rank break down?” story yesterday. (I would have at least waited until before Game 7. But, ah, whatever.) Sixers title run dreams that were so fresh in my head a week ago seem silly now. The Sixers have to get out of Canada first.