After the Philadelphia 76ers let a precious road playoff victory slip through their fingers in the most dramatic of fashions in Game 2 of their first-round series against the New York Knicks, losing 104-101 on Monday night, 76ers superstar center Joel Embiid declared Philadelphia will go on to win the series.
“We’re good,” Embiid said, sitting inside Madison Square Garden’s visitors locker room. “We’re going to win this series.
“We are going to win this. We know what we got to fix. We did a better job today, so we are going to fix it.
“We are the better team. We are going to keep fighting.”
For a few minutes, it felt like the 76ers had gutted out what would have been an incredibly important and impressive victory to even this series at a game apiece, after taking a five-point lead with 47.3 seconds to go when Kyle Lowry split a pair of free throws.
But then, in a 14.3-second span, Jalen Brunson had a 3-pointer bounce in, Tyrese Maxey turned the ball over on the ensuing inbounds pass and Donte DiVincenzo missed a 3-pointer before an Isaiah Hartenstein offensive rebound gave him a second chance — one that he wouldn’t miss and wound up becoming the game-winning shot.
While Maxey would go on to miss a potential go-ahead layup and Embiid a potential game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer, Philadelphia had about 14 different complaints over how those 14.3 seconds played out.
For starters, 76ers coach Nick Nurse and several players, including Embiid and veteran Nicolas Batum, said Philadelphia had been calling timeout, and that it wasn’t granted, on the inbounds.
The 76ers also were frustrated that a foul wasn’t called on Brunson for grabbing a handful of Maxey’s jersey before the ball was inbounded.
“Everybody was trying to call a timeout on the floor,” Embiid said. “Me included. Coach on the sideline. But they didn’t give it to us.
“But, forget about the timeout. There’s a bunch of fouls. That’s f—ing unacceptable.”
Not surprisingly, the Knicks had a different view of things.
“I mean, we don’t give up,” Hartenstein said.
“I am not frustrated,” Embiid said, in his final answer of his media session. “I am actually good.
“We are going to win this.”