Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey give Sixers hope in defeat − and so does $180M bust with 0 points

PHILADELPHIA − The record will show that the 76ers bowed out of the NBA playoffs in the first round, far short of a championship. And that they failed to get past the second round for a 24th straight season.

The record will also show that once again Joel Embiid dealt with some kind of malady for yet another postseason, and that Sixers management was unable to surround him with championship-caliber players.

But not all playoff exits are created equally, and certainly that's the case this season after the Sixers fell 118-115 to the New York Knicks in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference's first round Thursday night. The Sixers lost the series four games to two.

Even though the Sixers couldn't even get to the second round, let alone beyond it, they did leave with a ray of hope for the future.

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That's because for the first time since Jimmy Butler in 2019, the Sixers have a legitimate second star to Embiid in Tyrese Maxey. No longer do the Sixers have to deal with the shenanigans of Ben Simmons not shooting at all and James Harden shooting too much.

And with overmatched coaches like Brett Brown and Doc Rivers now that Nick Nurse is in place.

Soon, the Sixers won't have to deal with Tobias Harris disappearing whenever the stakes are highest, like his zero-point wasted effort Thursday.

Maxey won Game 5 for the Sixers with 46 points while Embiid had what he called "a terrible game." And Maxey went right after the Knicks again, driving and careening his way to the basket.

No, Maxey wasn’t as successful, scoring 17 points on 6-for-18 shooting as the Knicks sent him flying and the referees somehow lost their whistle.

Maxey made his point anyway.

“He’s got to understand he’s not anywhere near where he could be,” Nurse said. “He’s an ‘A’ player.”

So is Embiid. He nearly carried the Sixers to a win in Game 6 with 39 points and 13 rebounds on a surgically repaired knee that for all intents and purposes should have ended his season in late January.

Instead, Embiid wanted to return this season for Maxey. He also dealt with Bell’s palsy and migraines in this series.

Yes, Embiid needs to stay healthy, an all too common refrain. But this season showed a new side to Embiid’s maturity and focus, and accountability.

"I feel like coming back this year, I could have taken more time to heal and get back to myself," Embiid said. "Obviously, I’ve known (Maxey) for a long time, and I just felt like I didn’t want to give that up. I wanted to get the opportunity to be on this stage, and be part of it, and I didn’t want to let him down and the whole team, too. That’s always been my mindset.

"I’ve always played through stuff. It’s never been an excuse, and it’s not an excuse."

That's because we saw that grit and fight from the Sixers that had been mostly absent since Toronto's Kawhi Leonard hit that last-second shot in Game 7 that bounced off the rim four times and through. The Raptors, coached by Nurse that season, went on to win the championship.

Since then, the Sixers kept coming up short in spectacular flameouts, whether it was Simmons passing up a dunk in 2021, to Butler haunting the Sixers with the Miami Heat in 2022, to Harden combusting in Games 6 and 7 last year.

This was different. Game 6 was a microcosm of the whole series. Nurse compared it to a boxing match, with the Knicks delivering "a flurry of right-lefts, right-lefts" with the Sixers responding each time.

The Knicks took a 22-point lead in the first quarter. Then the Sixers outscored the Knicks by 32 to lead by 10 midway through the third. Then the Knicks got themselves up off the mat to take an eight-point lead with 2:43 left before the Sixers tied it at 111-111 on Maxey's 3-point play.

The Knicks' Josh Hart hit what proved to be the game-winning 3-pointer with 24.4 seconds left, but not without the Sixers flailing away for one last chance as Buddy Hield's last-second 3-point attempt to force overtime missed.

It was as if you could feel the Knicks breathe a sigh of relief. No wonder Knicks guard Donte DiVincenzo, the Salesianum School in Delaware and Villanova star, who had won a championship with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021, said afterward how mentally and physically grueling this series was.

DiVincenzo felt that personally. He hit the game-winning 3-pointer for the Knicks in Game 2, then struggled with his shot for the next three games before bouncing back with 23 points in Game 6. DiVincenzo played the entire game.

"They’re not a normal 7 seed," DiVincenzo said. "Going into the first round, we knew it was going to be an uphill battle. It was back and forth between the teams …

"You outwork them, you stay together, and this is what happens."

The Sixers aren't quite there yet. They got nothing from Harris in what certainly will be an ignominious end to a mostly forgettable tenure as a Sixer.

"I don’t really think about that," Harris said about the possibility that was his last game as a Sixer now that his dfive-year, $180 million contract is about to expire.

And that will turn out to be Harris' greatest assist as a Sixer. His departure will create $39.3 million in salary cap space as he heads to free agency. That, along with other players leaving, will give the Sixers plenty of money to find players to build around Embiid and Maxey.

What that will look like is uncertain. But Nurse said he knows what it should look like.

"Absolutely," he said without elaborating.

That's because the Sixers have Embiid and Maxey, and soon they'll have the salary cap space to add much more around them.

"Don’t know what they are going to do," Embiid said. "But they have the opportunity to do something good ... I mean, that’s a great position to be in."

Then Embiid turned towards Maxey, sitting next to him at the podium.

"You got a superstar coming in," Embiid said. "You know the face of the franchise for his whole career, really, coming in, and that’s exciting."

It might not feel that way right now after a disappointing first-round exit. And it certainly doesn't to Embiid.

"I mean, it sucks to lose. The goal is to win a championship," he said. "Anytime that don’t happen, that’s all I care about."

For once, though, you can feel the Sixers getting closer because of Embiid and Maxey, with a big assist from Harris to come.

Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on X @Mfranknfl.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey give Sixers hope in NBA playoff loss to Knicks