3 observations: Joel Embiid dominates as Sixers beat Nets at home

The Philadelphia 76ers and the Brooklyn Nets matched up on Wednesday in what was a big game in the standings for both teams. As they race for the No. 1 seed in the East, the tiebreaker between the two teams was on the line in order to have the upper hand in that race.

The Nets were resting Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin as they work their way back from injuries and they were already missing James Harden and LaMarcus Aldridge. With the Sixers being at full strength, this was a game they could not lose and Joel Embiid made sure they didn’t as he had 39 points and 13 rebounds to lead Philadelphia to a 123-117 win on Wednesday.

Tobias Harris added 26 points and five rebounds, Ben Simmons had 17 points and nine assists, and Shake Milton had 15 with seven coming in the fourth quarter in support of Embiid’s big night.

Here are the three observations from an important win:

Nets defense against Embiid

The Nets started DeAndre Jordan in this one so he can defend Embiid and he did give him some trouble. The Sixers big man had to work for his buckets, but the thing is, he still got a lot of easy looks and he got to the foul line. Jordan did about as good a job as he possibly could against the MVP candidate and it still did not work out all that well. There was a play in the third quarter when Embiid faced up on Jordan and he was then double-teamed before he knocked down a fadeaway jumper in the corner. It was just so easy for him. If these teams are to meet in the playoffs, Embiid will be fed a steady diet of both Jordan and Aldridge. Both players have proven to be no match for the big fella and that is where Philadelphia will have a clear-cut advantage. Brooklyn does not have anybody to ably guard Embiid over the course of seven games. The only issue is, they did not pay too much attention to Simmons and they sent a lot of doubles his way. That will be problematic in the playoffs.

Off-ball defense

The Nets are a team that likes to run a lot of stuff off the ball on offense. They will use off-ball screens and off-ball cuts to be able to free up the other guys for open looks. Philadelphia did an excellent job of denying passing lanes and going over screens in order to throw a wrench into Brooklyn’s offense. They had to settle for a lot of tough shots and they made some due to the talent they possess, but they really did not have a great flow. This will obviously be much tougher when the Nets have their full assortment of stars they can turn to, but this was a good test run for Philadelphia. They were talking on this end and they were covering for each other on any rare mistakes. The only issue was the Kyrie Irving and Jordan connection as they kept Brooklyn in it in the early going. Irving is a tough cover for anybody and the way he scored in this one made even the tougher shots look like layups.

Simmons attacking

When Simmons is attacking and getting into the paint, that is when Philadelphia is at their best on offense. The attention he attracts when he gets into the teeth of the defense is what drives the offense because he can then kick out to open shooters. It was impressive he was able to do that because the Nets were playing him so far off the ball and he had to work his way into the paint to do his part. Philadelphia also got creative in order to get him open looks inside. They were setting screens off the ball and Simmons was able to use that to get open for layups. That then allowed the Sixers to get some open looks for their shooters a bit and they were able to get in a flow. They were 7-for-11 from deep in the first half and that was due to the work of Simmons.

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