It was the Sixers’ second possession after the halftime break, with the Sixers holding a narrow 63-58 edge in the pivotal Game 3 of their best-of-seven series against the Atlanta Hawks. They were playing in the hostile and raucous State Farm Arena, where Atlanta had won 13 straight games.
Ben Simmons brought the ball down the court and flipped it over to Joel Embiid 35 feet from the basket. Before even receiving the pass, Embiid was already pointing at the basket, instructing his 6-foot-10 point guard to get down on the low block. Embiid took a couple of dribbles in, noticed that Tony Snell was selling out to front Simmons’ attempt at a post-up, with no help behind Snell if Simmons made a hard cut to the basket.
