Joel Embiid guaranteed the 76ers would beat the Knicks. He was dead wrong.

Joel Embiid guaranteed the 76ers would beat the Knicks. He was dead wrong.

Shortly after the New York Knicks pulled off a heist for the ages last week in the closing minute of Game 2, Joel Embiid guaranteed that the Philadelphia 76ers would dig out of their 2-0 hole and win the first-round NBA playoff series because they were “the better team.” The reigning MVP was sincere, but no one who has closely followed his career had any reason to believe he could deliver on his pledge.

Since Embiid arrived in Philadelphia 10 years ago, the 76ers have hired and fired general managers, dumped coaches, parted with stars and recycled the supporting cast to no avail. When the Knicks finished off a series-clinching 118-115 victory in Game 6 on Thursday at Wells Fargo Center, they ensured the 76ers would fall short of the Eastern Conference finals for the 23rd consecutive season. And after advancing to the second round in five of the previous six seasons, Philadelphia couldn’t make it out of the first round despite the celebrated summer hiring of Coach Nick Nurse and a breakout season from Tyrese Maxey, who was named the NBA’s Most Improved Player last week.

The only common bond on the court throughout this decade of suffering is Embiid, who returned from knee surgery in early April in hopes of finally leading the 76ers over the hump in the wide-open and injury-ravaged Eastern Conference. Instead, the 30-year-old center added another chapter to his checkered postseason résumé and made some new enemies in New York along the way. Embiid’s latest early exit would have come even earlier if not for Maxey, whose last-minute flurry and 46 points in Game 5 extended the series and set the table for Philadelphia’s season-ending home loss.

“The whole series I could have played better,” Embiid said. “Maybe if I was better, we would have won it. That’s on me. That’s why we lost. I have to find a way to get better as a basketball player, a person and a leader, and come back and hope that everything else aligns.”

Though Embiid turned in one of his best playoff performances with 39 points and 13 rebounds and benefited from an unusually productive night from Philadelphia’s bench, it wasn’t enough to overcome his flat showings earlier in the series and an unshakable opponent. Knicks star Jalen Brunson, who capped a brilliant first round with a game-high 41 points and 12 assists, drilled a pair of clutch three-pointers midway through the fourth quarter before setting up Josh Hart for a go-ahead three-pointer with 24.4 seconds left.

As has happened many times, Embiid’s health, conditioning, mobility, mental composure and decision-making held him back against a quality opponent in the playoffs. During his seven postseason runs, Embiid has never prevailed against a 50-win team. Brunson joins Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler and Jayson Tatum on the list of stars who have outplayed Embiid in the biggest playoff moments.

“Not everybody, even the superstar players, play great every night,” Nurse said when asked about Embiid’s inconsistency, including a perplexing Game 5 dud. “He plays great most nights. I think he would say and most people would say he didn’t play that good the other night. He played so bad he had a triple-double. He played good four out of five. We’ll take that.”

The Knicks, nursing their own injuries, consistently outworked Embiid on the glass, exploited his struggles defending jump shooters and survived his 50-point performance in Game 3. As Embiid’s production and impact consistently tailed off late in games because of exhaustion, New York’s role players found ways to make greater contributions than Philadelphia’s superstar. Embiid aided the Knicks’ cause with the type of careless turnovers and ill-advised shots that have plagued him in crunchtime for years, and he was outscored by Brunson 14-6 in the decisive fourth quarter in Game 6.

Jalen Brunson finished with 41 points and 12 assists as the scrappy Knicks sent the 76ers packing. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Any effort to credit Embiid’s nobility for plugging through an array of health concerns — knee pain, Bell’s palsy and a migraine before Game 5 — was undercut by his unsportsmanlike antics. He earned flagrant fouls for pulling Knicks center Mitchell Robinson to the court in a dangerous manner in Game 3 and for hitting Brunson across the face in Game 5. He flopped to sell calls, complained loudly about the officials and even called out Philadelphia’s home crowds for being overrun by ravenous Knicks fans.

Perhaps Embiid overlooked the many virtues that have made the Knicks so popular, the same qualities that have often been lacking from his 76ers teams over the years. New York was built to be a five-man collective, rather than two stars flanked by office furniture. New York hit the hardwood in pursuit of loose balls and never quit on an offensive rebound opportunity. New York made its own luck rather than dwelling on injury excuses or threatening to file grievances over missed calls.

Brunson, a likable underdog, let his game do the talking and displayed a knack for stepping up in big moments. New York fans savored their victories and directed profane chants at Embiid because they were confident they had a winning playoff formula and knowledgeable enough to know they didn’t need to fear him. New York fans, who prompted Philadelphia’s owners to buy and give away thousands of tickets to Game 6 in hopes of salvaging a home-court advantage, knew Embiid was dead wrong after Game 2: The Knicks were the better team.

“Everybody in our locker room tried,” Embiid said. “We played hard. I know it wasn’t enough. I can tell you everybody in our locker room cared. We gave up a lot of offensive rebounds, but it’s not because we wanted to. We tried our best.”

Embiid was eliminated by East powerhouses such as the Boston Celtics (2023) and Miami Heat (2022) in recent years, but this loss to the Knicks — a well-coached group that gets by on grit rather than star power — best encapsulates the 76ers’ fundamental shortcomings. Embiid, for all his talent, isn’t cut out to be a singular savior, and his unreliable health has prevented the 76ers from fostering championship-level continuity.

After failed stints with Jimmy Butler, Ben Simmons and James Harden, Embiid lucked into an ideal co-star in Maxey, whose electric scoring and infectious joy gave Philadelphia fans a reason to remain invested. Yet Maxey’s impressive series came to a quiet close when he scored 17 points on 6-for-18 shooting in Game 6.

Philadelphia’s plan going forward will be to use its abundant salary cap space to find long-term difference-makers to support Embiid and Maxey. Paul George is a popular target, but any desirable target must decide whether he wants to tie his career to Embiid’s unpredictability. George, who has spent the past five seasons hoping for the chronically injured Leonard to make it to the playoffs healthy, knows those frustrations better than anyone.

“You can’t just put people together for one year and hope it’s going to work out,” Embiid said. “[Maxey and I have] some experience together and that’s the way to go. We’ve got to keep going and keep building around it.”

Whether 76ers President Daryl Morey lands a big fish this summer, the roster will undergo another round of changes. Mercifully, the perpetually underwhelming Tobias Harris, who went scoreless in 29 minutes Thursday, has reached the end of his lavish contract and almost certainly will be moving on. Virtually everyone else on the roster can be sacrificed if necessary.

Even in a best-case scenario, the 76ers next season will need to dramatically improve their chemistry while working around whatever new maladies might strike Embiid. That’s why New York’s thrilling triumph was so unsurprising and why Embiid’s guarantee rang hollow. Ten years of evidence made it clear this would happen; confident declarations are simply no match for a torn meniscus, a misguided team concept and a lack of late-game poise.

“I still believe if everything went right, we had a chance,” Embiid said. “But everything didn’t go right.”

OG Anunoby (19 points, nine rebounds) and the Knicks move on to face the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference semifinals while Embiid and the 76ers are left to ponder their shortcomings after another early postseason exit. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)