Pre-game expectations for Game 4 of the Brooklyn Nets’ first-round playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers were scarce, if they existed at all. Brooklyn’s entire game-plan had revolved around limiting the impact of star Sixer Joel Embiid over the first three games: relentless double-teaming of the league’s presumptive MVP on one end, working around around his dominant rim protection on the other. Every other factor in the series, to that point, had been a subsequent domino of whatever the Nets threw at Embiid.
Prior to Game 4, Embiid was ruled out with a right knee sprain suffered in Game 3, a Philadelphia win that felt like the death knell for Brooklyn’s season.