A suffering Joel Embiid is not all that goes wrong with the 76ers

The 76ers were eliminated in the fifth game on Tuesday night, between 125 and 89, by Kawhi Leonard and the Toronto Raptors. Nothing worked for Philadelphia. Jimmy Butler was willing to go to the line for 11 free throws. In the middle of the fourth quarter, the match had become laughable, with Amir Johnson and T.J. McConnell doing his cleaning job.

The systemic problem of Joel Embiid's doo-doo is a serious problem for the 76ers. What started as a shitty case became an upper respiratory tract infection, over a chaotic and tendonous knee. Embiid looked downright miserable on the ground for his 31 minutes of burning; In the fourth quarter, when Brett Brown finally put an end to his suffering, Embiid seemed to experience something like an emotional depression on the bench. At its best, Embiid is one of the best and most destructive basketball players; in his current state, he was good for a 13 points and six rebounds of the same type as Thomas Bryant, and eight turnovers in the manner of Hasheem Thabeet. You would cry too, especially after eating this huge Kawhi dunk:

But the condition of Embiid is only part of what touches these 76ers. Yes, the Raptors are very good and Kawhi Leonard is a monster and a killer, and when Toronto finally gets the production of various Serge Ibakas and Fred VanVleets, they are really a huge problem for anyone. But it's worth remembering that the 76ers slaughtered the bejeezus off an otherwise cheerful Net team on the road, in a match in which Embiid never hit the ground. They won the second game of this Raptors series in Toronto, while Embiid was struggling against serious difficulties, and was limited to 12 points, six rebounds and six turnovers. The 76ers would not be chosen to beat the Raptors in a match without a full Embiid, but they showed they could defend themselves.

The other major problem of the Sixers in these last two matches has been the production of Ben Simmons. He has an extremely difficult job to do in this series, as Kawhi is both an unstoppable offensive monster and one of the toughest defenders of basketball. These two players are inevitably at the height. Part of what Kawhi has to his advantage, however, is Simmons' total passivity on offense. Simmons scored 33 total points over the last four series games, including only seven points on Tuesday night. He has attempted only three free throws in total over this period. And where he was at least willing to shoot – a modest but respectable 13 of them – in Philadelphia's home win in Game 3, he made only five attempts to field the field. 25 minutes. He became a complete non-entity in Philly's half-court offensive; without his five turnovers, it would be possible to forget that he had even participated in the match. During the remotely competitive portion of Tuesday night's loss, you would have had a hard time guessing which of the Philadelphia stars that had been pumping their lungs.

Kawhi is a strong enough defensive presence without forcing his opponents to play with only four offensive players. And he has enough strength to shoot without giving him 20 seconds of rest between two offensive possessions. The Sixers desperately need Ben Simmons to find something like the ferocious and destructive form that he won when winning in match 3 in Brooklyn without Embiid, when he constantly attacked the paint and finished with 31 points and Jared Dudley's mantle mantel head. They would need that even though Embiid was healthy, but if it is not, the 76ers can not survive with Ben Simmons, a passive and relaxing player. They can not hope to start scrambling Toronto's defense with just three and a half offensive players.

Empty Philadelphia stars become a systemic problem. Embiid's gravity in painting is an important part of allowing Philadelphia's perimeter guys to agitate and sneak between the three open points. With Dead Embiid and Simmons checked, J.J. Redick held three totally unacceptable points on six shots, including three just beyond the arc; Butler shot 6 times out of 16 from the ground and found only two three-point looks; The Sixers were led in the three-point attempts by Embiid, with six, which is very far from ideal. It is no coincidence that the 76ers were judged by far their lowest offensive ranking, 89.9 points shameful and unsustainable for 100 possessions.

The Sixers will have a chance to tie the series in Game 6, in Philadelphia. At this point, it seems too much to expect a perfectly healthy Embiid, but even a lighter one could make all the difference. In one way or another, the Sixers will need something from Simmons if they want to move forward. When he plays this way, we do not even know what his role is in this series, except for a nasty striker, Andre Roberson, who sometimes plays the ball before disappearing along the course. He does not have to be their best player, but he can not just be their fifth or sixth best. In this way, lies the elimination.