Basketball historians will look back at the 2022-23 NBA season and see that the best player during that span was Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid. That being said, they would also discover that Embiid flamed out when his team needed him the most, as he was nearly a no-show in the Sixers' most important games of the 2023 NBA Playoffs. In fact, his numbers had a sharp decline from the regular season to the postseason.

Via ESPN Stats & Info:

“Joel Embiid averaged 33.1 PPG in the regular season and 23.7 PPG in the playoffs. That drop-off (-9.4) is the largest by that year's MVP in NBA history.”

The Sixers had a cakewalk in the first round, with the team barely needing Joel Embiid to be at his absolute best to get the job done in just four games. However, Embiid continued to put up subpar performances in the second round against the much more dangerous Boston Celtics. While the Sixers were able to survive the Nets despite Embiid's less-than-stellar showing, they were not going to get away clean with that versus the Celtics. The Sixers had a 3-2 series lead after five games against Boston, but failed in both their chances to close out the Celtics, thanks to James Harden and Joel Embiid's ghost act.

In Games 6 and 7, Joel Embiid averaged just 20.5 points while shooting just 37.8 percent from the field.  Harden generated only 11.0 points on 25.9 percent shooting during the same stretch.

Joel Embiid won the 2022-23 NBA regular season MVP, but that's not shielding him from the criticism, at least for now.