Joel Embiid can be a hero in Game 6, but it starts with not trying to be one

The thing about Joel Embiid’s false humility is that it isn’t really false and it isn’t really humility. He’s a bit of an absurdist in that regard. I’m thinking about a moment on Tuesday night where somebody asked Embiid about how well he’d played in the Sixers’ 115-103 win over the Celtics in Game 5. It was a viable question. By any objective measure, he’d played quite well: 33 points, four blocks, three offensive rebounds, three assists. Of course, when it comes to evaluating his own performance, Embiid is the opposite of objective.

Naturally, he disagreed with the assessment of how well he played. Tonight? That wasn’t anything special. He’d missed some shots. He prides himself on efficiency, and 10-for-23 isn’t all that efficient. He agreed that he played OK. That’s as far as he would go.

In the midst of all of this, Embiid cracked a little smile. There was a bit of a gleam in his eye, the kind that often appears when his trolling alter-ego comes out to play. Embiid clearly understood how ridiculous he sounded. His impact on the game had been much more than “OK.” At the same time, he hadn’t set out intending to lay it on so thick. When you are as good as he is, it just comes out that way sometimes.

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Truth is, Embiid is capable of a heck of a lot more than we’ve seen from him in any one game this postseason. In fact, it’s the biggest reason to believe in the Sixers as they enter Thursday night with a chance to close out the Celtics at the Wells Fargo Center. Embiid’s first four games of the series have mostly served as evidence that something greater lays within. The first time out, he looked like a player who was two weeks into a four-to-six week recovery. That was concerning enough to wonder whether the Sixers could possibly hang with the second-seeded Celtics. Then came his second game, when he was the only player in a Sixers uniform who didn’t look crippled by something. In his third game, he looked like a player who could turn the tide of a series. Then, in his fourth game, he turned that tide.

What comes next is anyone’s guess. The Sixers enter Game 6 with an opportunity to do something that they’ve spent close to a decade building toward. For a guy who has happily made himself the namesake of “The Process,” a starring role in a home clincher would be something of a culmination. The Sixers haven’t been to a conference finals in more than two decades. The second half of that stretch has been largely filled by Embiid’s attempts to justify the rebuilding process that led to his arrival here in Philly. What better way to do it than a performance that lives up to even his lofty standards?

It’s an interesting question. The answer contains the sort of irony that Embiid himself would appreciate. What the Sixers really need out of Embiid in Game 6 is for him to play as if the other four guys on the court are the ones who are going to win it. That’s when they’ve been at their best this postseason. It’s also when he’s been at his best.

The strongest example of this strange dichotomy was the first half of the Sixers’ 116-115 win in Game 4. Embiid scored 19 points in those two first two quarters, but the story was how he scored them. These weren’t time-consuming, all-or-nothing, Jayson Tatum-type shots. Five of his seven makes came from inside the paint, four of them assisted, each of them the byproduct of ball movement that left him either open or in a favorable matchup that only required him to finish. This wasn’t Embiid facing up from 17 feet and spending all possession setting himself up. Less than four minutes into the game, all five starters had attempted a shot. By halftime, Embiid’s 12 attempts had accounted for only 25% of the Sixers’ total team attempts.

Compare that to the second half, when Embiid went 3-for-12 while playing predominantly 1-on-1 or 1-on-2. There, he attempted a third of the Sixers’ shots. Three times, Al Horford blocked him in situations where he tried to manufacture a bucket himself. Embiid had clearly lost his legs. But he’d also lost his patience.

It’s no coincidence that Embiid’s best passing nights often coincide with great scoring nights. In his three 50-plus point games during the regular season, he combined for 17 assists. Shooting efficiency and passing efficiency are both a product of the same root mentality: a recognition that when a good shot isn’t there for me, there is probably a decent one there for someone else.

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The Sixers don’t need hero ball. At the same time, there is hero ball in there. We haven’t seen it yet. Even while scoring more than 30 points in each of the last three games, Embiid has shot just 44.1% from the field. Compare that to his performance against the Hawks two years ago in Games 1 and 2: 39.5 points per game on 54.3% shooting. That’s 2.5 additional makes per game against the same number of misses.

I’d be willing to bet that those games against the Hawks were in the back of Embiid’s mind when he gave himself only satisfactory marks for his Tuesday night performance against the Celtics. He’s overdue for a truly dominant scoring night. He also needs to remember that the Sixers don’t necessarily need it.