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Kristian Winfield: Knicks must take advantage of Joel Embiid's limitations after Game 1 injury scare

Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News on

Published in Basketball

NEW YORK — Whatever percent healthy Joel Embiid was before Game 1 between the Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday evening, slice it in half.

Embiid — one of the most dominant centers in all of basketball — flexed his particular brand of dominance with under three minutes left in the second quarter when he used an off-the-backboard alley-oop to himself to shed one Knicks defender (Mitchell Robinson) and posterize another (OG Anunoby).

And then he grabbed at his left knee and crumbled to the ground.

The same left knee he underwent midseason surgery on to repair a meniscus in early February.

Embiid laid on the floor with his hands fixed on his forehead as the Knicks pushed the ball and scored off his made dunk.

The Sixers then called a timeout and team trainers escorted him to the locker room.

 

No Embiid. No shot.

The Knicks dominated minutes the reigning league MVP spent off the floor in Game 1. They won his resting minutes, 11-6, at the top of the second quarter then closed the period on a 9-0 run after he left the game due to injury.

Those non-Embiid minutes were few and far between. Like a prize fighter — or maybe more like Paul Pierce — the star center emerged from the tunnel a full go.

Embiid started the second half for the Sixers and played the entire third quarter before his scheduled rest at the top of the fourth. The Sixers chances at winning Game 1, let alone the series, plummeted with his injury then rose from the concrete with his emergence from the locker room.

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