Philadelphia and Brooklyn entered Saturday night tied for the 11th seed in the Eastern Conference, 1.5 games behind Chicago for the final play-in spot in the East. This game mattered for both teams’ postseason dreams.
With Joel Embiid watching from the bench, Brooklyn’s center Nic Claxton put back a Cameron Johnson miss as time expired to give the Nets a 105-103 win on the road.
Johnson led Brooklyn with 23 points.
This game was the latest sign it is time for the Sixers to shut it down for the season and focus on keeping their top-six protected first-round pick (if the selection is seventh or higher, it goes to Oklahoma City; Philly currently has the sixth worst record in the league). Philadelphia had its superstar trio to start Saturday’s game — Embiid, Paul George, Tyrese Maxey — but couldn’t beat a team that has been selling off most of its best players this season as they target the lottery.
Philly is now 12th in the East and needs to leapfrog two teams just to make the back end of the play-in.
Embiid, who has admitted he is playing through knee pain and may need another surgery to clean it up, was benched in the fourth quarter in favor of Guerschon Yabusele — and it was the right move by 76ers coach Nick Nurse. Yabusele had connected better with the other starters than Embiid.
Why are the Sixers asking Embiid and Paul George — who also has admitted playing through pain — to risk more severe injury? To earn the No. 10 seed in the play-in? While this season may have started with the highest of expectations in Philadelphia, it has gone completely off the rails. It is time to shut Embiid and George down, let them get healthy and focus on next season, and see if they can hold on to that top-six draft pick.
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