The Sixers jettisoned their two cleverest, toughest players, and they’re paying for it. They find themselves trailing, 3-1, in the first round of the playoffs to a Knicks team built on grit and guile. Beverley and Morris lasted a combined 25 years in the NBA because of their gritty guile.

Maybe the series would be different if the Sixers had more grit and guile. Maybe they wouldn’t be facing elimination Tuesday in New York. Who knows.

It began with such promise.

The Sixers lost their fourth consecutive game the day after the trades, but Hield logged the first of four straight 20-point games. Daryl (and I) looked brilliant.

Hield hasn’t sniffed a 20-point game since his Sixers honeymoon. He’s suddenly gun-shy in the playoffs; he’s taken only four three-pointers in three games, and he’s scored only one basket, a layup. Nick Nurse can’t afford to let him leave the bench. Payne’s getting his minutes.

That’s not optimal, because Payne immediately was relegated to backup duty when the Sixers agreed to terms with veteran Kyle Lowry on Feb. 10.

Lowry is shooting 42.3% from the field in the playoffs.

Meanwhile, Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson is cooking everybody. If Beverley was in Philly, Brunson might still be getting hoops, but he’d be earning them.

On the Morris front: Paul Reed, Joel Embiid’s backup, has been so bad, so soft, and so clumsy that Nurse had to play Embiid all 24 minutes of the second half in Game 4 on Sunday. Mo Bamba has not played in the series. The Knicks charge the paint with abandon when Embiid is out. That abandon would be checked if Morris was still around.

The trade made sense at the time.

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