There are few things in the NBA more precious than time and space. Four years ago, it seemed like the Philadelphia 76ers had endless amounts of both as they faced off with the Miami Heat in a first-round playoff series with an eerily similar setup to Monday night's Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals: Superstar center Joel Embiid was out with a broken orbital bone and hoping his teammates could prolong the series long enough for him to return to action with a custom-made face mask.
Ben Simmons was Embiid's running mate in 2018, when it felt like the young duo had a decade in front of them to figure out how to pay off "The Process," former Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie's then-radical vision of championship team construction.