The Philadelphia 76ers did their best to ensure that this NBA Playoffs series would go to Game 6. Tyrese Maxey used up all of his power to propel them above the Jalen Brunson-led New York Knicks. They have two more games to go if they want to keep this postseason run going. However, things are not looking too positive because of Joel Embiid's status.
The 76ers have not seen the full potential of Joel Embiid in this NBA Playoffs run. His lateral quickness has clearly been hampered and it looks like things only got worse. This is why Tyrese Maxey has been doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Now, the reigning Most Valuable Player went down in Game 6 against the Knicks. He immediately headed to the locker room to be evaluated, per Mike Sisak of the Associated Press.
He did return to the game but the same issues still continue to plague him. The 76ers have relied a lot of their first-quarter offense on Joel Embiid in this game. His inside presence has been a huge factor that is keeping the team alive. So far, he has knocked three out of his six field goal attempts and went a perfect three for three on his free throws for nine points. He also notched three total rebounds to end possessions.
The offense has not been great for the 76ers at all. Despite attempting 26 shots from all three levels of scoring, they only managed to sink eight of those. They have also gotten the ball stolen from four times into this NBA Playoffs clash already. This has prevented them from gaining any sort of offensive momentum. The fact that they turned the ball over six times as well also does not help.
The great part about the 76ers' game plan is that they are taking care of the glass well. They have notched four blocks so far and have kept the battle of the boards close. With Joel Embiid and Nicolas Batum's help, they notched 16 rebounds to the Knicks' 18. It was a tough first quarter where they went down by 14 points but there is still a lot of time left in the clock for a comeback.