After Sweeping Brooklyn Nets, Sixers’ Fate Rests On Joel Embiid’s Knee

Prior to Saturday, the Philadelphia 76ers hadn’t swept a seven-game playoff series since 1985. Their last sweep in any series came in 1991 (a best-of-five).

With a 96-88 victory over the Brooklyn Nets in Game 4, the Sixers clinched their first sweep in 30-plus years. In doing so, they bought star center Joel Embiid and point guard James Harden a much-needed week of rest ahead of an Eastern Conference Semifinals matchup against either the Boston Celtics or Atlanta Hawks.

Embiid suffered a right knee sprain in the third quarter of Game 3 and remained in the game, but he missed the Game 4 closeout victory on Saturday. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne reported he “could be back in the lineup as soon as early next week,” but Sixers head coach Doc Rivers told reporters that it was “probably 50 percent at best” that Embiid would be ready for Game 1 of the conference semifinals.

The conference semifinals will begin no earlier than Saturday, April 29, and they could begin as late as Monday, May 1. At worst, Embiid will have nearly a week-and-a-half from the time he suffered the injury to recover. Even if he can’t play in Game 1, the Sixers seemingly could expect him back early in the series, barring any setbacks.

Although the Sixers beat the Nets without Embiid on Saturday, they likely won’t fare as well against their second-round opponent if he remains sidelined. The Nets spent the first three games often sending double- and triple-teams at Embiid as soon as he caught the ball, which created plenty of open shots for his teammates.

Despite missing Game 4, Embiid currently leads all players in the playoffs with nine secondary assists. Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry is the only other player with more than four.

With Embiid sidelined for Game 4, the Nets were able to turn back to their more standard defense. They still routinely switched between matchups, but they weren’t sending the additional help at replacement center Paul Reed as they did at the MVP front-runner. The Sixers wound up shooting only 16-of-47 (34.0 percent) in the first half and entered the locker room trailing 48-40.

Reed had only two points on 1-of-4 shooting and five rebounds in the first half, while Nets center Nic Claxton had 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting, seven rebounds and four blocks. Reed flipped the script in the second half, going off for eight points on 4-of-6 shooting and 10 rebounds (including five offensive boards), while Claxton had only four points and five rebounds.

“The first half, I came out trying to force shots that weren’t the best looks for the team,” Reed told reporters after the game “… Second half, I went out and every offensive rebound, if I didn’t have a wide-open layup, I kicked it out. It helped us a lot. We were getting a lot of good looks.”

The Sixers weren’t much more efficient in the second half, as they shot only 20-of-44 overall (44.5 percent), but they turned the game around with a 21-4 surge in the third quarter. James Harden and P.J. Tucker got it started with a pair of three-pointers, and Reed, Tobias Harris and Tyrese Maxey took over from there.

Harris was the Sixers’ star on Saturday, finishing with a team-high 25 points on 11-of-19 shooting and 12 rebounds. He made up for cold games from Maxey (16 points on 6-of-20 shooting) and Harden (17 points on 4-of-18 shooting, 11 assists and eight rebounds), the latter of which continued a concerning series-long trend.

Harden finished the series shooting only 7-of-30 from the paint, which raises fresh questions about whether he’s still feeling the effects of the Achilles injury that caused him to miss time toward the end of the regular season. If that wasn’t enough to heal the injury, it’s unclear how much of a difference this next week will make much (if any).

Between Embiid and Harden, the Sixers could use as much time off between the start of the next series as possible. ESPN’s Tim Bontemps believes Game 1 of that series would likely be on Saturday if the Celtics close out the Hawks in five games, but it would be on Monday if Celtics-Hawks goes at least six games.

For now, the coaching staff can begin advance work on both teams, although a showdown with the Celtics seems far more likely. If they do face Boston for the third time in the last six postseasons, they’ll need Embiid to stand any chance of pulling off an upset. The Celtics beat the Sixers in the regular-season series 3-1, with the lone Sixers victory coming courtesy of a 52-point effort from Embiid against a short-handed Celtics squad.

In Al Horford and Robert Williams III, the Celtics have more options to throw at Embiid one-on-one than the Nets did. They might be content to allow Embiid to feast—particularly if he’s physically compromised—to ensure that Harden, Maxey, Harris, etc., don’t get going as well. They figure to throw extra defensive help his way at times, though, much like the Nets did in the first round.

There’s time to worry about that later. For now, the Sixers should enjoy their hard-earned rest and recovery before the pressure ratchets up in the next round.