National Basketball Association

NBA playoff dispatches: Sixers overcome Embiid struggles, Suns take 2-1 lead

Updated Apr. 21, 2023 2:33 a.m. ET

Yaron Weitzman

FOX Sports NBA Writer

Ric Bucher

FOX Sports NBA Analyst

Melissa Rohlin

FOX Sports NBA Writer

FOX Sports writers are providing takeaways from games throughout the NBA playoffs. Here are their thoughts from Thursday night.

76ers 102, Nets 97: Embiid's effort makes for ominous win

It’s probably not a good sign for the Sixers that the first round of the playoffs isn’t even complete and Joel Embiid is already laboring. Yes, he had an outstanding block to seal the Sixers’ road win over the Brooklyn Nets, giving them a 3-0 series lead. But other than that, he did little to help his team.

His numbers were ugly. He shot just 5-for-13 from the field. He finished with 14 points, a season low. He turned the ball over five times. He committed five fouls. He didn’t grab a single offensive rebound, despite being matched up against a severely undersized Nets squad. He attempted just five free throws.

Worse than that, though, was the way he looked. He seemed to collapse to the floor every other trip down the court. Sometimes he’d limp after getting up. He clutched at his knees. Never mind him losing his cool in the first quarter and — despite not being interpreted as cause for ejection from the officials — kicked Nic Claxton in the groin.

Talking to reporters after the game, Embiid was his usual self, using his charm to deflect questions about his actions. Asked about his health, he said, "I’m OK, I took a lot of shots today. I’m fine."

Asked about the shot to Claxton’s mid-section, Embiid said, "I don’t know, I don’t remember it. Like I said, we’re up 3-0."

The All-NBA center made a point of pointing out his belief that the Nets were taking shots at his knees and back in a hope to trigger a reaction and get him ejected.

"The whole game you could see what they were doing, just trying to get a rise out of me," Embiid said. "I'm too valuable, especially after the first one, I just understood I'm too valuable to get into this stuff."

But watching the game, I couldn’t help but think of something someone in the Sixers’ organization said to me a few years ago when talking about the team’s title chances: "It all comes down to whether, come April, Joel can play every game, at a level close to his best, every other day, for three months."

That remains the case today. And it's why the Sixers, despite being on the verge of sweeping their first-round foe, could be in trouble.

— Yaron Weitzman

Warriors 1114, Kings 97: Be wary of Curry

If the game is in the Bay Area, and Steph Curry is playing, the Sacramento Kings are losing.

The Kings appeared to be poised to take a stranglehold on their first-round series with the defending champion Golden State Warriors Thursday night. Already up 2-0 in the series, they faced a Warriors' team in Game 3 without its defensive quarterback and offensive orchestrator, Draymond Green, who was suspended for stepping on Kings center Domantas Sabonis' chest with 7 minutes left in Game 2.

Green was given a flagrant foul, penalty two, at the time, resulting in his ejection, and Sabonis was charged with a technical foul for grabbing Green's ankle.

The Warriors were stunned when the league added a one-game suspension to Green's punishment. Joe Dumars, NBA head of basketball operations, said that Green's history of prior incidents, along with egging on the Kings' crowd while officials reviewed the play, were factors in the decision to suspend him. That NBA commissioner Adam Silver was in attendance with a full view of Green's antics probably didn't help.

But the Warriors still had a few things working in their favor. Such as:

This being the Kings' first playoff game on the road in 16 years.

Chase Center's magical influence on the level of play by the team's role players, who are as magnificent at home as they are feeble on the road.

The postseason resilience and stubborn confidence of its core, developed through six marches to the Finals over the last eight years, four of them producing rings.

And, of course, Stephen Wardell Curry.

Since 2013, the Kings have not beaten the Warriors in a game in the Bay Area — neither at their previous home, Oracle Arena in Oakland, or their current home, the Chase Center in San Francisco — when Curry plays. The streak is now 14 losses in a row. And counting.

"They say Draymond's got a history, so do we," Curry told the TV audience afterward. "We know how to bounce back."

Curry led the way with 36 points, bolstered by 6-of-12 shooting from deep, but an array of role players who were largely invisible in the first two games in Sacramento stepped up in the wire-to-wire win with contributions that Green normally would've provided. No one among them did more than Kevon Looney, who filled in as an offensive distributor with 9 assists and doubled up his work on the boards, grabbing 20 rebounds, four more than his first two games combined. Moses Moody, a DNP in Game 1 with four points in 8 minutes in Game 2, made up for the absence of Gary Payton II with 13 points. Donte DiVincenzo, scoreless in Game 2, provided a mini-version of Green's all-around game with seven rebounds, eight assists, four steals and six points.

The Warriors were willing to play at a more deliberate tempo to start, presumably to avoid committing the turnovers (20) that were a big part of their downfall in Game 2. Mission accomplished: they took a 29-20 first-quarter lead while committing only one turnover, by Curry, in the first minute. The Kings stayed within striking distance through the first half, but never showed the same fire, physicality and grit that had the defending champs on their heels in Sacramento. The Warriors maintained a double-digit lead for most of the second half. Credit a lot of that to their defensive intensity, which held the league's top-rated offense to 97 points, 24 below their season average.

"We couldn't change anything about the decision that we knew was wrong," Curry said, "but if we could come out and win tonight and change the momentum of the series, it would give us the opportunity to make it just about basketball … We did what we were supposed to do."

— Ric Bucher

Suns 129, Clippers 124:

A few hours before the LA Clippers hosted the Phoenix Suns, the series took a dramatic turn.

It was announced that Kawhi Leonard would miss Game 3 because of a sprained right knee, meaning the Clippers would be without both of their superstars. (Paul George remains out because of a right knee sprain and is reportedly likely going to miss the entire series.)

Give-me game for the Suns, right?

Not so fast.

Norman Powell and Russell Westbrook put forth a valiant effort, combining for 72 points and making the Suns have to earn their 129-124 win against the severely hobbled Clippers in a game that came down to the last minute.

This much can be said about the Clippers: In yet another postseason in which they're dealing with injuries, they showed a lot of heart.

They trailed by as much as 13 points in the fourth quarter before Westbrook made a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to three points, 119-116. But the Suns held on for the win, led by a 45-point performance from Devin Booker.

Leonard is now considered day-to-day, with Game 4 a very quick day and a half later on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at Crypto.com Arena.

Clippers coach Ty Lue didn't hold back on how disappointing the injury was for Leonard, who missed all of last season after suffering a torn right ACL in the 2021 Western Conference semifinals.

"I mean, it's very deflating," Lue said of Leonard, who aggravated his right knee at the end of the Clippers' win in Game 1. "Moreso for Kawhi because you have a guy coming off an ACL, hasn't missed a rehab session, eats right, eats clean, does everything he can for his body, works extremely hard to get to this point — and then he has something like this happen. It's tough for him."

Powell (42 points in 40 minutes) and Westbrook (30 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds) tried to pick up the slack. While there are a lot of unknowns moving forward for the Clippers, the team's effort while down gave them hope that they can still rally regardless of what happens with their superstars.

As Powell noted, if a few bounces had gone the other way, the Clippers could've even surprised the world with a win in Game 3.

But no such luck.

Now, down 2-1, they can only look ahead, knowing full well what their strategy will be.

"Just continuing to believe and not to let go of the rope just continue to fight, lay it all on the line," Powell said.

— Melissa Rohlin

Yaron Weitzman is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. He is the author of "Tanking to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Most Audacious Process in the History of Professional Sports." Follow him on Twitter @YaronWeitzman.

Ric Bucher is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. He previously wrote for Bleacher Report, ESPN The Magazine and The Washington Post and has written two books, "Rebound," on NBA forward Brian Grant’s battle with young onset Parkinson’s, and "Yao: A Life In Two Worlds." He also has a daily podcast, "On The Ball with Ric Bucher." Follow him on Twitter @RicBucher.

Melissa Rohlin is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. She previously covered the league for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, the Bay Area News Group and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on Twitter @melissarohlin.