Joel Embiid gave the Knicks a little more bulletin-board material after his 76ers’ lost Game 2.
The superstar center confidently declared that Philadelphia — down 0-2 after Monday’s instant classic at Madison Square Garden — would come back to win the first-round playoff series.
“We should be 2-0, so we’re good,” Embiid said at his locker. “We’re gonna win this series. We’re gonna win this. We know what we’ve got to fix. We did a better job today, so we’re gonna fix it. But we’re the better team, and we’re gonna keep fighting.”
Embiid’s bold claim came moments after Donte DiVincenzo’s go-ahead 3-pointer with 13 seconds remaining completed a chaotic comeback by the Knicks in their 104-101 win.
Playing in his eighth game since returning from an early-February knee surgery, Embiid finished with 34 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in 39 minutes on Monday.
Embiid, the reigning NBA MVP, is the latest member of the Sixers to offer fighting words. Before the series, backup center Paul Reed suggested the 76ers preferred playing the second-seeded Knicks to the top-seeded Boston Celtics in the first round.
“We wanted the Knicks matchup, of course,” Reed said on the “Run It Back” podcast. “That’s the easier team, I guess, but you know it’s going to be fun. We match up pretty well.”
Embiid also had 29 points, eight rebounds and six assists in Philadelphia’s Game 1 loss but is shooting just 39.2% from the field in the series – down significantly from the 52.9% he shot in the regular season. In Game 1, Embiid appeared to tweak the left knee that was operated on less than three months ago, but he has continued to play, aside from a brief exit on Saturday.
All-Star point guard Tyrese Maxey led Philly with 33 points in Game 1 and 35 points in Game 2, despite playing through an illness in the latter.
Philadelphia will host the next two games, with Game 3 set to take place Thursday night and Game 4 scheduled for Sunday afternoon at the Wells Fargo Center.