PHILADELPHIA — Joel Embiid says his Sixers’ first-round playoff series is already won, the Nets already done and dusted.
It’s the Nets’ job to prove him wrong.
And they’ll have to win Game 5 in a frenzied Wells Fargo Center to do it. That likely means surviving Embiid, probable for Tuesday’s elimination game.
“It is what it is. They’re up 3-1. It’s our job to make them uncomfortable. They’re comfortable right now: It’s our job to disrupt that,” Caris LeVert said, when told of Embiid’s proclamation.
“[We expect] a playoff environment, the same type of environment we got the last couple of games. Probably a little bit more ruckus. Everything on the line. We love competing on the road, especially in an environment like this.”
Most probably haven’t seen an environment like this.
The Nets won Game 1 in Philadelphia, but this series has gotten testier by the day, culminating with Game 4 when a fracas spilled into the stands, Jared Dudley and Jimmy Butler got ejected and GM Sean Marks stormed into the officials’ locker room.
“[This is] bright for the future, for Brooklyn, but right now the present is bright,” Dudley said. “We’re right here talking about the Brooklyn Nets playing Philadelphia, Game 5, going to a hostile environment.”
Hostile might be an understatement.
“I’m expecting the fans to be extremely excited. Philly fans, simple as that. I expect them to be Philly fans,” D’Angelo Russell said. “It’s high intensity. Everybody knows it could possibly be our last game if we don’t come out ready to play.”
Embiid — whose trolling of the Nets has reached epic proportions — already proclaimed a Nets win is impossible. He kept his own status vague when asked about his balky knee — saying only “Gotta keep ‘em guessing” — but was more definitive about the Nets’ chances.
Following his 31-point, 16-rebound, seven-assist, six-block Game 4 master class, he celebrated by going across Flatbush Ave. to Shake Shack and telling TMZ the series was “over.” It came after his second flagrant foul on Jarrett Allen and his dismissal of Dudley as a “nobody.”
“We have a chip on our shoulder. I feel like we’re more motivated,” Kenny Atkinson said. “We’ve got to do it on the floor, but myself as a coach and Sean and the whole organization, we’re going in there with a chip on our shoulder. We’re more motivated than ever.”
They’ll need to raise not just their motivation but their play after allowing 62 points in the paint in Game 4. And seeing Joe Harris get outplayed by JJ Redick and go 0-for-12 from deep in the three straight losses. And letting Ben Simmons punish them in transition, especially when Dudley hasn’t been on him.
Worst of all was blowing a late seven-point Game 4 lead, shooting 5-of-19 in the fourth quarter and committing five turnovers in the last 5:10.
“We’re fighting to play better. … We’re improving, just not there yet where we need to be,” said Atkinson, who took no solace in the league’s Last Two Minute Report confirming his contention the refs had missed a foul by Tobias Harris on Allen in Game 4’s final seconds.
“No consolation. I want to make it crystal clear: That’s not the reason we lost. The Nets lost because we weren’t good enough. … We didn’t make the plays, didn’t make the shots. We didn’t execute. … Yeah, there was a mistake made, but we made 15 of ‘em. I want to make that crystal clear that loss is on the Nets and not the referees.”
It’s also clear the Nets need Dudley to stay on the floor. He was a plus-12 in just 19:49 — second-best in the game behind Embiid — and has actually done a decent job slowing Simmons.
“We’ve been trying to earn our keep all year,” Harris said. “We’re a group of guys that individually are trying to earn respect, and collectively too.”