So this was me at some point last night:
Despite how it ended, after James Harden fouled out of last night’s Game 3, 104-101 Sixers win in overtime, Joel Embiid was bad. Oh, I should mention what the Kerry Wood Memorial Zoo is. It’s this fictional place that Kerry would mentally drift off to once most every start. He’d have like 7 Ks through four innings while giving up one hit, and then in the 5th he would just be unable to find the plate and walk four guys or give up a grand slam or something. And you couldn’t conceive how it could turn so sharply so quickly.
That was Embiid in the dying minutes. While I recognize that what makes Embiid special is he can do just about anything — beat guys off the dribble, run the offense, carry the ball up the floor, hit perimeter jumpers — that doesn’t mean the Sixers needed him to replicate Harden’s game after Harden exited proceedings. No one needs to see their 7-foot center attempting step-back fadeaway 28-footers simply because he thinks he can.
It felt worse than it was. After Harden fouled out, Embiid missed said 28-footer, and a 12-foot fadeaway, while making one from the elbow in overtime to give the Sixers a lead with two minutes to go. But he turned us all into our fathers, screaming “Get on the blocks!”
And it all doesn’t matter because of this:
Is this a good shot? I’m still saying barely maybe. Should you be able to get it off in 0.9 seconds? Also barely maybe. But it’s also the kind of thing Embiid can do, which makes him what he is. And seeing as how Harden might be bordering on “too much of a tub” to play his customary game anymore, I guess someone has to do it.
Sports don’t make any damn sense, man.