76ers 125, Knicks 114: “That was bush league.”

If you want to summarize Game 3 in a single word, Donte DiVincenzo did help you with it: “Dirty.”

If you want to do so in two words, Noooo has got you covered: “Bush league.”

In fairness to our Poster & Toaster, the actual, full, verbatim comment was “Embiid should have been ejected. That was bush league.”

Now you know what we’re talking about. And hey, if only had it been one thing...

The story of Game 3 is simple to tell. The Knicks and the Sixers were entangled in a contested, close, tight affair on Thursday. The score at the end of the first quarter was 29-27 in favor of the visitors. The score at the end of the first half was 58-55 Knicks. Hella close, indeed.

If you had not noticed in the paragraph above, I didn’t call whatever happened through the first 24 minutes of play a “game.” That’s because what the Sixers did was more of turning what everybody expected to be a basketball game into an MMA fight.

First, Kyle Lowry blatantly smacked Donte DiVincenzo in the face. That’s just five minutes into the game.

Second, Embiid punched Isaiah Hartenstein in the groin like the champ he’s not, he also banged knees with him, because why not? At least the refs had the decency of calling him for an offensive foul.

And then, nearing the end of the first quarter, the soon-to-be-just-another-former-MVP decided that was a great time to go grab a bunch of legs, putting season and careers in danger of getting lost forever...

...and excuse himself saying “I have to protect myself because I’ve been in way too many situations where I’m always at the bad end of it.”

Dead serious.

“I didn’t mean to hurt anybody.”

After whatever that was, and coming off the locker to play the final two quarters of Game 3, Robinson didn’t make it to the court while Embiid surely did.

The aftermath?

New York scored 56 points through the final 24 minutes to Philadelphia’s 70. Embiid lit the net from range while Robinson could do nothing to stop him because, well, he was probably getting checked by the medical staff of the Knicks and getting his leg put in a walking boot.

For real.

In the grand scheme of things and looking at it from the broadest possible angle, things haven’t changed. New York lost Game 3 but leads the first-round series 2-1 against the trailing Phillies, stealers of Game 3 on Thursday heading into Sunday’s matinee.

Embiid had himself a career game, of course, scoring 50 points and enjoying having to deal with one fewer big boy while celebrating scoring three-point shots while covered by DiVo. Sublime effort, JoJo.

Jalen Brunson returned to his usual scoring ways, bagging 39 points on the day. He dished out a monster 13 dimes to go with that; not bad!

Hartenstein could only log 26 minutes getting in foul trouble and limiting his presence on the court. Precious Achiuwa was the main replacement after not playing that much at the end of the regular season and not at all in the series' first two games. That hurt.

Josh Hart somehow scored four more 3-pointers on his way to hitting the 20-point plateau while grabbing 6 boards and assisting 6 buckets.

Do you know what the Knicks were not allowed to do? Shooting freebies. They went to the charity stripe 19 times. Embiid alone visited it 21 times, scoring in 19 of those attempts. lolwhatever

Personally, I never thought this was going to be an easy matchup, a 4-0 type of series. Far from it. In fact, I was glad the lads put up a 2-0 and maintained their home-court advantage intact through the first couple outings. Nothing has changed, every team has done what they are supposed to do at least on paper, so everything is alright for now.

Embiid said the Sixers should be 2-0 instead of 0-2 following Game 2. They were not, and neither are they leading—even tied—through the first half of the first-round series. The best position the Cheesesteaks can find themselves at entering next week is one in which they’d be heading into a raucous MSG with the card reading 2-2.

I might be drinking the Orange-and-Blue Kool-Aid here but I’d say that’s not very promising for their aspirations, is it?

See you Sunday. Tip-off at 1 pm, so don’t fall asleep. Knicks in Five, clinging home at MSG.

Cannot write a better script.