Brooklyn Nets: 3 favorable factors in 1st-round meeting with 76ers

1. Ailing Embiid enough to swing series

The Philadelphia 76ers won 50 games for the second straight season and a lot of the credit for that belongs to All-NBA center Joel Embiid, who put up the biggest numbers of his career this season.

Embiid averaged 27.5 points, 13.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 33.7 minutes per game — all career highs — and shot 48.4 percent overall and 30 percent on 4.1 3-point attempts a night.

He also blocked 1.9 shots per game.

But Embiid is the Bill Walton of his era — a superstar big man who is undermined by continued health issues.

At present, the issue is Embiid’s left knee. Soreness in the knee kept him out of Philadelphia’s final two games and five of their last seven overall and also idled him for eight games after the All-Star break.

Embiid played in a career-high 64 games — you read that correctly — and in his five-year career has played in just 158 of 410 games, missing all of his first two seasons, 51 games in 2016-17 and 19 last year before sitting out 18 times in 2018-19.

On Wednesday, 76ers general manager Elton Brand expressed optimism Embiid would be available for Game 1, but added a caveat.

Meanwhile, Philadelphia coach Brett Brown said fans shouldn’t expect the All-NBA big man to be at his physical peak.

The 76ers were just 2-2 against the Brooklyn Nets this season with Embiid healthy and available in all four games.

Healthy, available and absolutely crushing the Nets, that is.

Embiid averaged 30 points per game against Brooklyn, topping 30 in the final three meetings — 32 win at Barclays Center on Nov. 25, 33 in the loss to the Nets at Philadelphia on Dec. 12 and 39 in Philly’s 13-point victory at home on March 28.

He also had double-digit rebounds — 15, 12, 17 and 13 respectively — in all four games, while dishing out an average of five assists per game and shooting 60 percent (99-for-65) from the floor and 5-for-11 from 3-point range.

Embiid, for good measure, kept Brooklyn’s bigs in foul trouble constantly, shooting 46 free throws in the four games and making 37 (80.4 percent).

The 76ers have other stars — Ben Simmons emerged as an All-Star in his second NBA season after winning Rookie of the Year honors last season, Jimmy Butler is a two-time All-NBA player and four-time All-Star and Tobias Harris is on the short list of contenders for best current player never to receive an All-Star bid.

But everything in Philadelphia revolves around Embiid. The 76ers were 43-21 when Embiid played this season, 8-10 when he did not.

The problem for Philly if Embiid can’t go, or is limited, is two-fold.

Backup Boban Marjanovic is physically imposing at 7-foot-3 and 290 points, but can’t be expected to play much more than the 13.9 minutes per game he averaged in 22 games with the 76ers after being acquired from the LA Clippers in February. He just doesn’t have the endurance to do much more.

Behind him, the Nets have rookie Jonah Bolden, veteran Amir Johnson and recently acquired Greg Monroe.

Johnson is a bit undersized at 6-foot-9 and 240 pounds and averaged a career-low 10.4 minutes per game this season.

Monroe has scored 13.7 points per game in three games off the bench for Philadelphia since he was signed on April 4, but is a defensive liability and clogs the offense because he can’t stretch the floor at all.

If Embiid can’t go, the 76ers lose their biggest advantage over the Nets and it could be enough to swing the series in Brooklyn’s favor.