Joel Embiid finished with seven assists on Monday night, only the fourth time in 46 playoff games he’s thrown more than six.

It was a product of Brooklyn’s traps and doubles, for sure, but watch this short video clip and tell me if you recognize this guy from the turnover machine we watched five or six seasons ago:

Now to be fair, Joel did turn the ball over eight times in this game (though there were a couple of bullshit ones at the end), so the risk/reward of doubling him and turning him into a glorified facilitator shouldn’t be lost on anyone. If you can get eight turnovers, eight free throw attempts, and just 11 field goal attempts from Embiid in a playoff game, you’ll take that if you’re Brooklyn, considering that you don’t have anyone who can guard him one-on-one.

However, if you watched the game, you saw Joel improve cumulatively into the third and fourth quarters, especially during that stretch where the Sixers went on a 20-5 run and claimed the lead for good. They had a lot of success just dumping the ball into the nail/high elbow area and essentially splitting the floor in two, then hammering the corners:

They do it in one of two ways, basically. In this case, Jalen McDaniels throws the entry pass and then runs down to the rim, which holds Spencer Dinwiddie in place. That opens the weakside corner for Embiid to find Tyrese Maxey.


The other entry sees Harden throw the same pass, again with two guys in the corner, but one already floating around the dunker spot, in this case P.J. Tucker screening for Tobias Harris:

Brooklyn likes to throw that second body from Embiid’s blind side, so based on his catch points, the Nets are running off their defender near the break line or corner. The Sixers have done a nice job of recognizing that and giving Joel options on both sides of the floor, which is setting up their open three point looks.

“It’s the playoffs. You got to do whatever it takes,” Embiid said after the game. “I’m double, triple teamed. If I want, I can get a shot. Is it going to be a good shot? For me I think so most of the time. You got to trust it and keep making the right plays. Like I said in the first half we were pretty cold, but I knew that at some point that we were going to knock down shots. Tobias was big. Tyrese was big. James did a good job of managing and just kept going.”

You can see how many good opportunities they had from the corners because of the early movement and recognition: