So...hold off on those brooms...

About that sweep I was so sure was gonna happen...excuse my while I shove my foot in my mouth. I swear, whenever I start to feel overconfident, the sports gods strike me down with might force...

This time it came in the form of an injury to Joel Embiid in the second quarter. His absence gave the Wizards a slimmer of optimism, and they capitalized. Their fate is deferred at least one more game after defeating the Sixers 122-114 Sunday evening.

The Sixers obviously remain in the driver's seat for the series. No NBA team has ever bounced back from a 3-0 deficit, let alone when the talent disparity is as wide as it is between these two teams. Still, it's disappointing they couldn't overcome the big man going down and rally. On to the next, so they say.

That doesn't mean there aren't some observations for me to make!

***Do note that I am deliberately avoiding the elephant in the room--namely, how severe is Embiid's injury? It was determined 'knee soreness' when he left, and he is scheduled for an MRI on Tuesday. I am not in the business of doomsday forecasting, and you will not find that here. Let's all just wait and see what the results are. Regardless, I would be legitimately stunned if he suited up for game 5. No reason to risk exacerbating things, just let him rest up for the next round for as long as possible.

--Ben Simmons battled foul trouble all night and only played 24 minutes. He was on the floor down the stretch, though, and his most glaring deficiency was on full display--in the fourth quarter, he bricked half of his 8 free throw attempts. Every one of those attempts came in the final three minutes of a very winnable game as the Wizards freely deployed the hacking strategy. Each trip to the line, he split the pair. On the night as a whole, he went only 5-for-11 from the line. And by the way--those five makes were his first successful free throw conversions in the series. He entered the game 0-for-9. Zero. Makes. In. Nine. Attempts. If we do some quick napkin math, that adds up to 5-for-20 in four games, 25.0%. Shaq looks like Steve Nash at the line compared to Simmons right now. This is getting ugly. Doc Rivers shot down the notion he made a mistake not taking Simmons out in those final few minutes because of all the other ways he impacts the game, but it may be getting to the point where that stance is totally indefensible. The pace slows down in playoff crunch time, and Simmons' greatest strengths--apart from his admittedly unaffected defense--are largely neutralized. Guys need to make their looks at the charity stripe in those situations, and Rivers might have to think long and hard going forward about keeping his star guard in if these struggles persist.

--Tobias Harris had a chance to seize the moment in Embiid's stead, and unfortunately he failed to measure up. He had 21 points...on 24 shot attempts. He did impact the game in other ways with 13 rebounds and five assists, but the Sixers needed him to morph into a go-to option, and he couldn't, The 28-year-old is coming off a career year and rightly has Sixers fans feeling good about his fit with the team now. But Embiid's presence looms large here in bringing out the best version of Harris. If the center is unable to return....nope. I said I wasn't gonna go there, and I'm not.

--I'm officially putting out an APB for Shake Milton. 6 points in 7 minutes, four fewer than any other Sixer played Monday night. He's getting only ten minutes per game in the series, and has as many field goals as games played (four). The way Tyrese Maxey is going (8.0 points in 13.3 minutes on 54.2/66.7/66.7), the-third year guard better really step his game up if he wants to steal some minutes back. Otherwise, his seat on the bench will stay very warm and very occupied.

--The Sixers 3-point shooting was not going to stay as hot as it was forever (26-for-54 across games 2 and 3, 48.1%), but it was still a weak showing in game 4 (12-for-38, 31.6%). Conversely, the Wizards weren't going to stay frigid from beyond forever (10-for-57 across those same games 2 and 3, 17.5%), and they experienced a bit of stabilization themselves from out there (9-for-24, 37.5%). Back to the Sixers though--you'd like Harris, Danny Green and Seth Curry to shoot better than 4-for-17 (23.5%). The bench actually shot it quite well (George Hill, Maxey, Matisse Thybulle and Furkan Korkmaz combined to go 8-for-15, 53.3%). If things stabilize and everyone gets on the same page, hopefully this rollercoaster settles into a nice groove.

--Even without Embiid, and considering Harris and Simmons combined for 25 boards, I did not foresee the Sixers getting waxed on the glass 57-48. That's because with the exception of the aforementioned, no other Sixer had even 5 rebounds. But when triple-double maestro Russell Westbrook is hauling in 21, what can you do? Other than keep Rui Hachimura, an unspectacular rebounder given his exceptional physical tools, from grabbing 13 of his own. Clean it up, boys.

What's Next?

The Sixers will hopefully put this series to bed on Wednesday night at 7 p.m., this time back in front of their home crowd.