2024 NBA Playoffs Takeaways: Embiid has legendary playoff game, becomes public enemy No. 1 in New York

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – APRIL 25: Joel Embiid #21 of the Philadelphia 76ers looks on during the fourth quarter against the New York Knicks during game three of the Eastern Conference First Round Playoffs at the Wells Fargo Center on April 25, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)

Things move fast in the NBA playoffs, so to help you stay on top of things, from now through at least the end of the second round, we will have nightly takeaways from the postseason action.

Joel Embiid has legendary playoff game, becomes public enemy No. 1 in New York

This was the Joel Embiid the 76ers needed. This was the Joel Embiid we had been waiting for.

Embiid’s jumper was working Thursday night and he dropped 50 on the Knicks, carrying Philadelphia to a much-needed win and making this a 2-1 series (with Game 4 Sunday, so he gets an extra day off in between). Embiid did all that while playing through a mild case of Bell’s Palsy the player admitted after the win.

While Philly worked to establish him in the post early, Embiid is not getting his points in the paint — just six of the 50 — and is relying on his much-improved midrange shot, plus he was 5-of-7 from 3. Most importantly, he was aggressive and attacking, getting the whistle, and was 19-of-21 from the free throw line. All that plus he was a force as a rim-protecting big.

This was the Embiid the 76ers needed to be competitive in this series.

But Embiid should not have been around for what became his signature game — he should have been ejected in the first quarter for this play, where on the ground he grabbled Mitchel Robinson’s legs and brought the Knicks big man down.

The NBA rulebook says a play must be “unnecessary and excessive” to draw a Flagrant 2 and ejection. When asked postgame referee Crew Chief Zach Zarba said, “The crew was unanimous along with the replay center official in Secaucus that this foul was unnecessary but did not rise to the level of a Flagrant 2.” Philadelphia fans will see that as appropriate and balancing the poor calls they got when the series was in New York for the first two games, but to my eyes, that is clearly excessive. I get not wanting to throw a star player and likely change this entire series — if the Knicks had won they would be up 3-0 — but that’s not enough of a reason not to make the call.

How did Embiid’s actions play in New York? By the time the game was over he was banned from the Empire State Building. Seriously.

Embiid is going to be booed heartily by Knicks fans when this series shifts back to Madison Square Garden.

Embiid could get a flagrant added to his count by the league in the next 48 hours for this missed call, when he kicked Robinson in the “groin.”

Philadelphia got the breaks from the officials they felt they deserved and now this is a 2-1 series with some real bad blood. Game 4 Sunday is going to be wild.

What makes Denver’s offense so unstoppable?

The Los Angeles Lakers do not have an answer for the Denver Nuggets’ offense. Nobody does. The Nuggets level of execution is the best in the league and it’s not close. Los Angeles can’t match it for 48 minutes.

Part of what makes their offense so hard to stop — outside of Nikola Jokic being the best player on the planet — is that they don’t run many plays. They have actions, but they’re much more read-and-react than detailed play construction.

“It’s a great way to play basketball,” Aaron Gordon said postgame. “It’s like how USA basketball plays. It’s like how FIBA Basketball plays, and you got Nikola Jokic who is the center point, he’s the epicenter of our offense. And, you know, he learned the worldly game. So he plays it the right way. You got Jamal [Murray] and Nikola, so killer two-man game right there. The open man is the right man. The right man is the open man and we just we make the right reads play the game the right way. We are rewarded for that…

“It’s kind of a telepathy we got that we got with this group, we got a mind-meld with our starting five.”

That mind-meld can sweep the Lakers out of the playoffs on

Saturday.