Joel Embiid became the 3rd player to ever score 50 points against the Knicks in the postseason, leading Philadelphia to a 125-114 Game 3 win.
PHILADELPHIA — Joel Embiid may not be 100% healthy, but he was healthy enough to score 50 points on Thursday, leading the Philadelphia 76ers to a 125-114 victory in Game 3 of their first-round series with the New York Knicks.
Three nights after suffering a heartbreaking defeat at a raucous Madison Square Garden, the Sixers didn’t allow the Knicks to make this one too interesting, taking control with an amazing 43-27 third quarter and never trailing by less than seven in the fourth.
Here are some numbers, notes and film as Philly got its first win of the series:
1. Embiid survives foul trouble and flagrant review
This would have been a different game if …
1. Embiid picked up another foul in the first half.
He committed his second foul with 4:34 left in the first quarter but remained in the game for another minute and a half. Then he picked up his third with 6:27 left in the second quarter and stayed in the game again, playing the entire second period.
He didn’t commit another foul all night, though he drew 14 of them in his 41 minutes.
Being down 2-0 was a desperate situation for the Sixers, so much so that Nick Nurse kept his star on the floor through foul trouble that would usually have him on the bench. The gamble paid off.
2. He was called for a Flagrant 2 instead of a Flagrant 1.
Back to that second foul. Embiid met OG Anunoby in the paint and fell to the ground. Anunoby then shoveled the ball to Mitchell Robinson under the basket and, as Robinson jumped to dunk the ball, Embiid grabbed and pulled on his right leg …
It was not a basketball play, but it was a dangerous one, and Embiid was fortunate he got a flagrant 1 instead of a flagrant 2, which would have had him ejected in the first quarter.
After the game, crew chief Zach Zarba said that the officials were “unanimous that this did not rise to the level of excessive contact, unnecessary and excessive, which would have been a flagrant 2 ejection.”
2. The jump shots were falling, the Knicks were fouling
In all three games of this series, Embiid has taken more shots from outside the paint than in the paint. That’s generally not a good trend, and it certainly wasn’t in Game 1, when he was 3-for-13 from the outside.
But he shot better in Game 2 and was 10-for-13 (5-for-6 from mid-range, 5-for-7 from 3-point range) outside the paint in Game 3.
Joel Embiid shooting
| Paint | Outside paint | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FGM | FGA | FG% | FGM | FGA | FG% | |
| Game 1 | 5 | 9 | 55.6% | 3 | 13 | 23.1% |
| Game 2 | 4 | 11 | 36.4% | 8 | 17 | 47.1% |
| Game 3 | 3 | 6 | 50.0% | 10 | 13 | 76.9% |
| TOTAL | 12 | 26 | 46.2% | 21 | 43 | 48.8% |
Doesn’t include a shot from the backcourt in Game 2
Embiid did post up on the Sixers’ first three possessions of the game and again on four straight possessions late in the second quarter. The Sixers scored 12 points on those seven possessions.
He only posted up once in the second half, and that play resulted in a turnover. But the post touches weren’t needed, because Embiid was 7-for-8 from outside the paint after halftime, with four of his five 3-pointers being tightly contested.
One was too tightly contested, with Isaiah Hartenstein putting Embiid at the line for three of his 21 free throws.
There have been eight instances in NBA history where a player averaged at least 10 made free throws in 35 games or more. Embiid’s last two seasons are two of those eight instances, with no other player having averaged more than 10 made free throws in more than one season.
Whether on the perimeter, facing up in the post or driving to the basket, the big man knows how to draw a foul. He drew 14 on Thursday and made 19 of his 21 attempts from the line.
3. Sixers’ offense explodes in third quarter
When the Knicks scored on the first possession of the second half, they had a five-point lead. And they scored efficiently (27 points on 22 possessions) in the third quarter. But the Sixers were on another level.
Philadelphia’s 43 points on 21 possessions (2.05 per) were the second most efficient quarter for any team in any game this season (regular season, Play-In or playoffs), topped only by an Indiana Pacers third quarter (50 on 24) against Charlotte in early November.
Embiid scored 18 of his 50 in the third, but the other Sixers were on board, with Tyrese Maxey playing the entire period and scoring 10 of his 25.
The Sixers repeatedly had Kyle Lowry and Embiid set staggered screens for Maxey coming from the left side of the floor. When Maxey used both and drew two to the ball, the action got Embiid his most wide-open 3 of the night.
And when Jalen Brunson rotated up to Embiid, Maxey found Lowry wide open in the left corner …
The Sixers ranked 14th offensively this season, but they’ve now scored 120.8 points per 100 possessions, a rate which would have ranked second, in the 40 games in which Maxey and Embiid have both been available.
4. Payne returns, makes an impact
Cameron Payne has had an interesting season. After trading Chris Paul for Bradley Beal, the Phoenix Suns weirdly sent Payne (their only remaining point guard) to San Antonio, a deal they might now regret. Payne was waived by the Spurs and signed by the Milwaukee Bucks, only to be involved in the Patrick Beverley trade involving Philadelphia and Milwaukee at the deadline.
With the Sixers signing Kyle Lowry a few days later, Payne’s role was seemingly reduced, though he remained in the rotation with De’Anthony Melton unavailable for most of the last three months.
Though Melton wasn’t available for Games 1 and 2, Payne played just two and a half minutes in New York. Then Melton was back in uniform for Game 3.
But it was Payne who was back in the rotation on Thursday. He checked in at the start of the second quarter and made an immediate impact. On the Sixers’ first possession of the period, who came off an Embiid screen, drew Bojan Bogdanovic off the strong-side corner, and fed Nicolas Batum for a corner 3. And on the next two possessions, Payne drained two audacious 3-point attempts of his own.
The first was in transition, after a made bucket on the other end of the floor. And 25 seconds later, Josh Hart hesitated to close out any Payne let it fly …
Payne finished with 11 points, three assists and two blocks in less than 16 minutes of action, as the Sixers played two of their three point guards together for about 39 of the 48 minutes in Game 3.
5. Robinson goes down; Achiuwa called into duty
Mitchell Robinson had a big Game 1 (eight points, 12 rebounds, plus-20 in 30:21), just his 11th game back from an absence of more than three months. And he had seven boards in less than 12 minutes in Game 3.
But Robinson, still dealing with issues with his left ankle, couldn’t play in the second half. Hartenstein, Embiid’s primary defender, was in foul trouble all night. So Precious Achiuwa, acquired with Anunoby from Toronto in December, was called into duty.
Like the other two bigs, Achiuwa couldn’t avoid the fouls, committing three in a little more than 10 minutes of action. But he did register a plus-6 and for the third straight game, the Knicks won the minutes with Embiid off the floor. (In 28 total minutes with Embiid off the floor in this series, the score has been Knicks 69, Sixers 37).
If Robinson is unable to go and the 6-foot-8 Achiuwa is required to guard Embiid more in Game 4 on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, ABC), we may see more aggressive double-teams from the Knicks.
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John Schuhmann is a senior stats analyst for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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