The Philadelphia 76ers will go as far as Joel Embiid can carry them

Joel Embiid apologized but that did not seem sincere. The kind of laughter gave it. The opening game of the playoff series of the first round of the Sixers against the Brooklyn Nets did not leave Philadelphia with laughter. The Nets were a big underdog but won Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center, leaving some people panicked. The Sixers returned the match in the second game and ran into opposition – in at least one case, literally.

Before and during the series, Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson and his Sixers counterpart Brett Brown talked a lot about "haymakers" and "fist fights" and "going back and forth between the feet" . pushed us "and" really got us into "in the second game. He called the second fight "extreme physical". You can say that, yes.

Poor Jarrett Allen. On Monday night, Allen's face made the unfortunate mistake of pinching Embiid's elbow with the basket. If nothing else, Allen has a better jaw than Andrei Svechnikov.

After leveling the series of the first round at 1-1, Embiid was asked about his change of position after a full contact.

"Obviously, it was not intentional," Embiid said. "I have it very well and I'm sorry."

Ben Simmons was sitting right next to him for the post-game discussion. He also doubted Embiid's sincerity. Simmons burst out laughing. Embiid laughs too. It lasted a moment.

The Sixers did not get much distance in the series – they only managed 12 of 48 attempts at 3 points – but they were excellent on the ground. They far exceeded the Nets in both games (over-32) and they scored more points in the game (over-20). Atkinson said the Sixers "dominated" the Nets in both zones. This obviously had a lot to do with Embiid, who managed a double-double for the second consecutive game in limited minutes. In the second game, he also scored the first seven points of a third quarterback of 51 points (tied for most points in a quarter of the NBA's history).

But the Allen thing, Embiid was just Sorry about it, you know? Here again, the mischievous smile on his face suggested the opposite. He apologized a second time and Simmons laughed a second time.

"I'm not generally humble," said Embiid. He gestured towards Simmons. "That's why he's laughing."

No. Embiid is not usually humble. Barely a month ago, he was taking part in an interview for the TV post-game on television after the Sixers defeated their rival Celtics. Embiid had 37 points, 22 rebounds, 4 assists, a steal and a block against Boston tonight. He felt very good about it.

"I'm the most unstoppable player in the league," he's touted.

It was a bold statement, and that might even be true. But for that to be true, it must be on the ground, and that has not always been the case. Not recently, and not for long periods of his career. After the break from the stars, Embiid had missed 13 of the last 23 games of the team. The Sixers initially assigned him to "charge management" and then revealed that "Embiid had left knee pain because of what they had diagnosed as tendinitis." Embiid said he "played against the pain" and seemed to have realized that without him, the Sixers are a darker and less dangerous version of their best. They were over-5.8 with Embiid on the field this season and under-1.9 without him, according to NBA.com/Stats. But all the statistics in the world only confirm what everyone can see: the Sixers are really good with Embiid and something from the south without him.

In a promotion to the playoffs for ESPN, Embiid was called to a bit of forced humility for propaganda and public relations purposes in the league. "It's not just me," he said with an impassive face. Except that's really it.

After the first game, Brown said that Embiid looked "tired," and Embiid said "out of shape." During some parts of the second game, I thought he was looking sloooow during some stretches he walked the yard behind the rest of the pack.

Line 1 of the Embiid match: 25 minutes, 22 points (5-15 FG, 0-5 3PT, 12-18 FT), 15 rebounds, four assists, five blocks.

Embiid Line 2: 21 minutes, 23 points (8-12 FG, 0-0 3PT, 7-8 FT), 10 rebounds, one pass.

Embiid was questionable to play in both games. Imagine if he was healthy and not with a minute restriction. Jarrett Allen would need a goalie mask.

"Obviously there are a lot of games missing, it's hard to find a rhythm," said Embiid. "And also being on a minute of restriction, it's hard to find a rhythm."

He said he was trying to forget the pain when he was on the ground. It's probably not so easy. He did not practice during the series. When we were allowed to go to the Sixers Training Center for media availability earlier this week, Embiid was face down on a table, at the opposite end of the field, with a medical staff member working on his body. , the whole. Before the start of the series, Embiid first told us that "the level of pain has changed. The situation has worsened. He said it only bothered him when "jump. Landing. Moving. The basketball game. "

Given that their star basketball player suffers playing "basketball" and considering the seriousness of the first part, you expect the Sixers to experience difficult times. The atmosphere around the team – with the noted exception of the health issues of Embiid – was surprisingly casual. Simmons insisted – both before the start of the series and between the first two games – that there was no pressure. And if anyone secretly hoped that Jimmy Butler would be eliminated after the defeat of the first game, he was disappointed. Butler was the calmest of all.

"Dude, same crap," Butler said to the question regarding the state of mind of the team this weekend. "We are lucky. We play basketball everyday. We are in the playoffs. We are a 3 seeds. Were happy. It could be much worse. We could be down from 0 to 4, but we are not. "

If they had a record of 0-4, we would have had a very different conversation with him as the Sixers cleaned their lockers and headed for an extremely uncomfortable off season. But you get his point. Overall, the Sixers seemed to be in quite a good free space – which does not mean they are not worried.

Embiid's situation is frustrating for him. For Brown too. The latter had to answer countless questions about the state of Embiid before the playoffs, which led him to atypically huffy with the journalists. Recently, he tried to avoid being a point of contact on Embiid's health and asked us to "refer" to the official medical chart distributed by the public relations staff. It will probably not be resolved any time soon. The people I spoke to within the organization said that Embiid's availability in the future would probably be unknown on a daily basis, regardless of the length of their post-season . Brown did not deny it.

"We are in a phase, we are in a phase where we are gaining time," said Brown. "Can we win and buy a few more days? Can we get another win and buy a few more days? We could lose, but we are alive. Buy three more days. This is the path we follow with Joel. "

This path puts the Sixers in a difficult situation. They no longer have their eyes riveted on the horizon. If they had done it, there would have been no need to exchange rotating players / favorites such as Dario Saric and Robert Covington or young snipers like Landry Shamet, or tap into the stock of chip choices that was before, but more important. These Sixers are hyper focused on what is directly in front of them: the post-season and keep it as long as possible. This is a good approach in theory, but in reality, it is the opposite of what the property and the ex officio offices claim that the medical staff tries to merge almost daily.

It's not just frustrating for Embiid, Brown and the Sixers. Fans and critics are not thrilled either. While many people have made fun of it, the idea of ​​"load management" is to do management at the beginning and middle of the season, so there's still more charge for the playoffs. The Sixers had all that back. Embiid played 26 consecutive games to start the season. This included four back to backs. He has an average of 34.3 minutes on this stretch. That's a lot for everyone, and certainly for someone who has a rating of 7 feet and 250 pounds (it looks like the public relations staff has generously shaved a few pounds here), has a long history of injuries well documented and missed the first two seasons of his career. This is part of the reason why the organization would have put health provisions in the new contract it had signed before the start of last season.

This is one of the reasons why Sixers coaches and medical staff have often been criticized for their handling of these things. They have not been very talented and often end up on different pages. To be fair, everything is not in the team. Embiid said he was trying to focus on his diet, resting well and improving his conditioning to help his body heal so he could continue playing in the playoffs. It's something we've heard before. During the last season, he swore to get in better form, but to return to the game this season and to have Andre Drummond showing off in front of the ball and calling it "big form extra-terrestrial".

The constantly dubious status of Embiid necessarily changes the strategy of the Sixers. When Brown was questioned a few days ago about the difference between Embiid and his teammate, the head coach looked at his left hand and replied, "There's a night," and then looked at his right hand and l & rsquo; Has reached. very far away and says, "And there is day."

"You're going both sides of the ball, it's completely different," Brown said. "Let's call that for what it is." Brown said they had "sample sizes" with Boban Marjanovic and "few samples" with Greg Monroe and were hoping to get something from Jonah Bolden in the series. But even if he could put them together in a sort of Frankencenter, the three handsets would not be up to Embiid's abilities.

"There is no doubt," Brown admitted, " [Joel] is our jewel of the crown. "

Ben Simmons fans might interpret this as a snub and shake their (bad) fists in heaven, but it is a difficult point to argue for any objective observer. As Brown said for the last season, "the whole future of Embiid is his body". The same could be said of the future of the Sixers.

The Sixers said their window was now, but this window was closing well without a healthy Embiid on the floor. And even with A healthy Embiid on the floor, things do not necessarily become easier for the franchise. There are many complications here, many of which look like potentially untrained errors on the part of the Sixers.

Joshua Harris admitted that the Sixers had "high expectations". The managing partner of the team said it more than once last week during an unexpected and quirky Q & A session. (Apparently, no one told him that it was not the best time for surprise press conferences.) About an hour before the Sixers start their home series against the Nets, Harris went on. addressed to the media at Wells Fargo Center in an interview room just a few feet away. from the court and said, "We want to make a deep race."

This is probably true for the organization as a whole, but at that time, it was more like an "I" statement than an "us" statement. When he and his partners bought the team for the first time (for a very low crime price of less than $ 300 million), Harris was generally seen around the team but rarely heard. This has recently changed. At this year's Sloan Sports Analytics conference, Harris said the Sixers "have enough talent to go very far in the playoffs." Just to say that it was a little out of place compared to his usually reserved approach when it was evaluating his team. Then he went further and said that not going deep into the playoffs would be "problematic" and would make him "unhappy". He said "the pressure is strong to get results".

To say this in Boston early March is one thing, but calling an impromptu press conference to emphasize your point just before your team speaks after the post-season is a different story. Harris is a rather sweet guy, but this message was loud and clear. It was interesting to see him take a step forward at that time and be so direct. General Manager Elton Brand was sitting next to him, but it was undeniably Harris's show. He put the players on notice. The coach too.

When Harris was asked if Brown would be the head coach, no matter what will happen in the playoffs, the managing director thanked Brown for "an amazing job" by winning 50 games in consecutive seasons, which earned him to be worked "side by side". for six seasons "and added," For the moment, I think we support Brett. Then, Harris said that he was focusing on the Nets. As for confidence votes, it was not a lot. This is not the kind of thing anyone would want to hear from their boss just before what amounts to a significant performance evaluation that could determine everyone's future.

If the mandate of the Sixers' "decisive series" was not obvious to everyone after the trade deadline, it was certainly after all that. The juxtaposition between this season and the last is striking. A year ago, the Sixers took part in the playoff series after a series of 16 consecutive wins. They defeated Heat in the first round. And even though they lost to their Celtics rivals in the second round – which included the indignity of firing their confetti canons prematurely in a defeat – this race was successful.

This season looks different even though the Sixers have won more than 50 games for a second year in a row for the first time in more than three decades. It should have been a happy occasion. the main owner is here to tell all the players, from the players to the coach, that they better do more. He does not have to add the "or" part; it goes without saying now. The old organizational philosophy of adopting a long-term vision has been abandoned in favor of a win-and-immediately strategy. There was no gradual transition. One minute, the process was over and the next, the Sixers "Hunting the stars" in full public view.

Part of that is understandable. The Sixers want to get the most out of Embiid and Simmons while they are at their best. Embiid is only 25 years old, but sometimes he moves as he is considerably older. Whenever he touches the ground or dives into the crowd, which happens more often than the Sixers would like, it seems everyone in Philadelphia holds his breath. The Sixers could also distribute promotional paper bags to hyperventilate in the crowd instead of gathering towels to signal.

The acceleration of the timeline increased the anxiety that accompanied it. How could he not when everyone, from Brown to Elton Brand through Josh Harris, continues to advance the Sixers as contenders, just this second? The Sixers wanted to improve this season and traded Covington, Saric, Jerryd Bayless and a second-round pick against Butler, who will be an unrestricted free agent this season. They then sent Landry Shamet, Wilson Chandler and Mike Muscala, two future first-round picks (including Miami's unprotected 2021) and two second-round picks for Tobias Harris. He will also be an unrestricted free agent this season. Some former Sixers of this deal are better than others, but overall, it is a lot to give up for two players alternately inconsistent. (Butler had a murderous first match, then fell in the second game, Harris was invisible on the first outing, and then went for the second.)

What is troubling is that after taking these steps, the Sixers still can not know exactly what they have exactly here. By entering the postseason, the crucial players in question had made it together on the field only 10 times. Embiid, Simmons, Butler, Harris and JJ Redick went 8-2 together in the regular season. And although they had an impressive 119 points of attack and a score of 101.4 points defense, by NBA.com/Stats, they played a total of 161 minutes together. It is a sample size small enough to make up just one sample. Any note on the Sixers remains incomplete.

Josh Harris told us last week that the Sixers wanted to keep Tobias Harris and Butler because players of this caliber are hard to acquire. He is right. The franchise learned this difficult lesson the last season out of season, while it had plenty of space for caption but no high-level free agent was in the dark. By retaining Harris and Butler, they would deepen the luxury tax in the foreseeable future and prevent the Sixers from completing the rest of the list, not least because Simmons will soon sign an extension. This would represent a lot of money in four players. "We get it," Harris said. "It's expensive."

The Sixers want to pay the maximum amount of money for Tobias Harris and Butler and limit their flexibility if they are not absolutely certain to claim to be the same as the champions? Conversely, can they afford to let either of these guys walk after they have gone so far to buy them? The Sixers have tough decisions to make, but none of this will matter unless Embiid is in good health. The Sixers could lock Tobias and Jimmy, but if Embiid is not healthy, they will have to board the new practice center and apply an "abandoned" spray paint.

Brown has a saying about the Sixers' approach: "shape, spirit, health – land on the plane". These last two are important and they are directly related to their best player. The only thing that matters to the Sixers is to land this plane somewhere deep in the playoffs – but unless Embiid is on board, they'll be lucky not to crush him.