Joel Embiid exits Game 4 with right knee soreness On the verge of advancing into round, Philadelphia

Philadelphia’s attempt to sweep Washington out of the first round fell short without its best player. Joel Embiid was ruled out of Game 4 due to right knee soreness after playing just over 11 minutes. He suffered a hard fall in that span when Robin Lopez blocked his shot at the rim, leaving the Kia MVP finalist grimacing on the floor.

Embiid played another four minutes before exiting for good, finishing with eight points, six rebounds, and one steal. Washington went on to win 122-114, forcing a Game 5 in Philadelphia.

The All-Star big man had been nearly unstoppable through the first three games against the Wizards, averaging 29.3 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 1.0 steals while shooting a scalding 67.4% overall and 54.5% from 3-point range.

Through the series’ four games, the 76ers have been outscored by 17 points over the 97 total minutes Embiid did not play.

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The winner of the Sixers-Wizards series will play the winner of the Knicks-Hawks series in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Davis Bertans exits Sixers-Wizards Game 4 with right calf strain
Washington got a boost from Bertans in Game 4, but not for long before an injury sidelined the veteran forward.

Davis Bertans rediscovered his shooting stroke just before an old injury resurfaced on the same night.

The veteran sharp-shooter, who bust out of a prolonged slump in Monday’s Game 4 win for the Wizards, couldn’t be help finish the victory when a right calf strain forced him to exit for good with 8:57 remaining in the third quarter.

The 28-year-old Bertans scored 15 points in 23 minutes of action, including a 3-for-6 showing from 3-point range. After signing a multi-year extension with Washington last November, the 6-foot-10 forward saw his shooting efficiency and playing time drop in the 2020-21 season.

Bertans’ production took a turn for the worse in the Wizards’ first-round series with top-seeded Philadelphia. He shot just 35% overall (including 29.4% from 3) in Games 1-3, all losses.

Washington’s victory coincided with an injury to 76ers superstar Joel Embiid, who also exited Game 4 due right knee soreness. Game 5 will take place in Philadelphia on Wednesday (7 ET, NBA TV).

Utah Jazz prospects healthy with 3-1 lead, Donovan Mitchell leading way
Their Game 1 setback well behind them, the Jazz are poised to advance as injuries continue to take their toll around the NBA.

The Jazz are in good shape in their first-round series with the Grizzlies. And if they were in great shape, this series would probably be over.

Utah’s lone loss came, if you recall, when Donovan Mitchell was declared out of Game 1 at the last moment by the medical staff because of a lingering ankle sprain that Mitchell felt was healed. Anyway, Mitchell was miraculously declared fit for duty just hours following that contest — funny how that happens when a No. 1 seed loses the opener — and since then he and the Jazz have ripped off three straight wins.

The story here is this: Utah is going one direction with its health, and it seems the rest of the league is going the other.

Look around you: Anthony Davis isn’t expected to play Tuesday in a pivotal Game 5 of the tied Lakers-Suns series. Speaking of that series, Phoenix still needs a bit more evidence that Chris Paul is totally back from a bum shoulder. Joel Embiid couldn’t return to the Sixers second half of Monday’s eventual loss to the Wizards because of a sore knee. The Nuggets are trying to make do without Jamal Murray and the Celtics without Jaylen Brown.

And Luka Doncic, after being a pain in the neck to the Clippers in a pair of surprising Dallas victories, is now literally getting his just due in return in a series that’s now tied 2-2.

If this trend keeps up, the best team might not win this year’s championship; the healthiest team will.

But back to the Jazz: With Mitchell in the fold the last three games, this series has lacked much suspense. He’s their only star and their best creator off the dribble. Because of that, the Jazz can space the floor and lean on their strength, which is 3-point shooting. When those shots are falling, which has been the case since Mitchell’s return in Game 2, the Jazz are tough to defend because their 3-point talent is so deep.

They made half of their 34 shots from 3 on Monday. When you hit 17 of those, that’s usually a recipe for success (just a guess, without researching a mountain of stats). And oddly enough, Mitchell was the worst of the bunch, missing five of seven. Yet he was in full attack mode all night, scoring 30 points mainly by drawing enough contact to shoot 12 of 13 from the free throw line.

The journey from here, assuming the Jazz handle their business this round, is to ensure that their constant deep shooting is a championship-worthy strategy. Removing the Warriors from this conversation — they had three stars — has there been a 3-happy team to win a ring? The Rockets failed all those years with James Harden and fueled all the doubts that swore Mike D’Antoni’s system would eventually be a big fail in the playoffs.

The Jazz are constructed much the same way, with Mitchell assuming the Harden role. In the playoffs, with teams engaged in a best-of-seven series, there’s more time for adjustments and scouting reports get smarter. When those shots don’t fall, there needs to be a Plan B. And unless we’ve missed something, the Jazz don’t have one.

But that’s an examination for the next round, again, assuming this one is headed toward a logical finish. The Grizzlies are the youngest team in this postseason and they’re busy trying to learn what May basketball is all about. Meanwhile, the Jazz are rolling and launching long shots and winning, which makes them the envy of most teams currently in the playoffs.

Therefore, maybe the hero of this Utah-Memphis series is … the Jazz team medical exec who suddenly had a change of opinion.

“The biggest thing is I felt like I should’ve played,” Mitchell said.

It’s OK. The No. 1 seed in the West suddenly has a healthy outlook, on this series, on the chances of going further, and more importantly on a roster that’s no longer dealing with doctors.

Shaun Powell has covered the NBA for more than 25 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.

The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner Broadcasting.

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We hear about it all the time: efficiency, which is an analytically correct way of saying someone made a lot of their shots and took a bunch of them from the 3-point line.

Based on that, the Washington Wizards’ All-Star caliber backcourt was about as efficient in Game 4 against Philadelphia on Monday as the guy next door pulling his tractor mower onto the track alongside Helio Castroneves for the weekend’s Indy 500.

Beal and Westbrook combined to make 12 of 42 shots (28.6%), including 2-for-9 from the arc, while committing 11 turnovers in the roughly 85 minutes that they played.

Fortunately for the Wizards, their other nine players who manned the remaining 155 minutes shot better (28-for-46, 60.9%), hit their 3 at a better rate (7-for-15, 46.7%) and took better care of the ball (three turnovers). It was the way several of those other guys stepped up – and the degree to which Beal and Westbrook adjusted and made use of them – that enabled Washington to stave off elimination by sweep and beat the top-seeded Sixers 122-114 at Capitol One Arena and force Game 5 (Wednesday, 7 ET, NBA TV).

“I like that we’re all going through these experiences first hand,” Wizards coach Scott Brooks said. “Every young team, every young player has to go through a playoff first time. These guys now are done with that. Now it’s keep improving.”

Let’s get the asterisks out of the way here: Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, a load at both ends in spotting the Sixers to their 3-0 series lead, hit the floor hard on a layup with contact, jarring his tailbone and apparently jamming his right knee. He was done after just 11:24 of playing time, chipping in only eight points and six rebounds and taking his 2021 Kia MVP finalist specialness back to the visitor’ locker room.

Then Embiid’s sidekick, Ben Simmons, got bogged down in foul trouble with two in the first quarter, another in the second and his fourth just 12 seconds after halftime. That kept him off the floor for almost 19 of the game’s first 36 minutes.

The Wizards at least put Simmons to the test late, intentionally fouling the notoriously shaky shooter three times deep into the final quarter. Simmons hit three of the six free throws, which somehow satisfied both Brooks and Sixers coach Doc Rivers. Rivers said he was OK getting one point per possession on those, while Brooks felt his team grabbed control, turning a 108-108 tie into a 115-111 lead.

While Philadelphia’s two best players were hampered by injuries and whistles, Washington’s top two were just misfiring on their own. What saved them and the Wizards’ pride for a few more days was the manner in which Rui Hachimura, Robin Lopez, and Daniel Gafford picked up the slack and did a little leading of their own.

Hachimura, the second-year forward from Gonzaga, had been a non-factor through the first three games. But the native of Toyama, Japan, had a breakout performance with 20 points and 13 rebounds in 41 minutes. The inconsistency and dialed-back intensity Hachimura sometimes shows were no problem this time.

With more room to roam and less to fret about with Embiid and Simmons so limited, Hachimura played with poise. He was the one Westbrook found streaking downcourt for the breakout dunk that made it 115-111. And he was the shooter in the right corner whom Beal trusted after penetrating and kicking to the open man.

“He’s growing up in front of our eyes,” Brooks said.

Gafford got his first pl