Embiid: ‘Disappointing’ that Knicks fans had a strong presence in Sixers’ Game 4 loss originally appeared in NBC Sports Philadelphia
There was a lot more joy at the Wells Fargo Center late Sunday afternoon than there was after a typical Sixers playoff loss.
Knicks fans traveled well, turned up the volume during runs in New York, and celebrated a 3-1 series lead later in the day.
Joel Embiid certainly would have liked a clear, conventional home-court advantage.
“Disappointing,” Embiid said after the Sixers 97-92 loss in Game 4. “I love our fans. I think it’s unfortunate. I’m not calling them out, but it’s disappointing. Obviously you have a lot of Knicks fans and they’re in the way, but I’ve never seen that. I’ve been here for 10 years.
“It kind of irritates me, especially because Philadelphia is considered a sports city. They always showed up and I don’t think that should happen. It is not alright.
New York fans also had a prominent presence during the Sixers’ two decisive regular-season home losses against the Knicks – one 36-point explosion in January it is a 14 point defeat in February.
Embiid called on his world class to lead his team to victory in Game 3 of this first-round matchup, but the Sixers were terrible in the final minutes on Sunday. They went scoreless from a Kelly Oubre Jr. dunk with 5:04 left in the fourth quarter to an Embiid foul with 54.3 seconds left. That was Embiid’s only point in the fourth quarter.
After Embiid played the entire third quarter, Sixers coach Nick Nurse also kept him in the fourth quarter and gave him a season-high 44 total minutes. He was 0 of 5 from the floor in the quarter. Two of those misses were jumpers taken out of necessity with the shot clock nearly running out. One of them was a three-point attempt after the timeout with less than five seconds to play.
“Obviously we didn’t score enough,” Nurse said. “But again, they were sending a lot of people against him and you have to make the right play. And I think he did that.”
Continuing a theme from the entire series, the day still would have been good for the Sixers if they had been adequate on the defensive end. The Knicks recorded seven offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter.
For the series, the Knicks accumulated 61 offensive boards and 22 of them came in the final period. The Sixers have had just six offensive rebounds in the four quarters of the series so far.
The clarity of the Knicks’ approach is one of the reasons they were the The best offensive rebounding team in the NBA during the regular season as well. Point guard Jalen Brunson does it all — a franchise playoff record 47 points and 10 assists on Sunday — and virtually every other Knick is eager to grab everything they miss.
“I think part of it is obviously the best player they trust and they don’t care if he takes 40 shots a game,” Embiid said. “I think most of the time when you’re in the rotation or trying to set up to make sure he doesn’t get easy shots, it gives them a lot of open lanes to just attack the offensive glass. It almost seems like they know he’s going to shoot and are preparing for the offensive rebound. If you’re in the gap… by the time you turn around, your man will have already passed you. And now you’re left with a 3 against 2.
“I don’t even think that was the issue tonight. I think we had a lot of bad rebounds. You look at the game, every shot felt like it fell into their hands. Sometimes you can do the best job you can of trying to box out, but if the ball doesn’t bounce your way, there’s nothing you can do about it.”
The Knicks are now ready to play Game 5 at their true home on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
The Sixers cannot allow any combination of factors — the crowd, the heels, the clutch execution — to result in another loss.
“One at a time,” Embiid said. “We know we are good enough. We didn’t fire any shots tonight. So we just have to keep trusting ourselves. We know the pace wasn’t good in the fourth quarter, so we have to play faster. (…) Keep trusting each other and go out and play. We have no pressure. We are the seven seeds, we lost 3-1, a lot of guys are injured. I don’t know why we would feel the pressure.
“So we should just go out and play our best basketball. One at a time – get one. Go home and get another one. And then Game 7 right there, so I’m looking forward to that. Yes, no pressure.
