PHILADELPHIA — It will be Joel Embiid, and not Playoff Jimmy, headed to New York this weekend.
Embiid and the 76ers stand in the Knicks’ way in the first playoff series between the teams since 1989 after they fought back from a 14-point hole to pull out a 105-104 victory over Butler and the Heat in the Eastern Conference play-in round to advance to a first-round series beginning Saturday against the Knicks at the Garden.
Embiid scored 23 points and grabbed 15 rebounds after he had been listed as questionable for the game due to maintenance on the knee injury that had sidelined him for more than two months before an early-April return.
Butler and the Heat still can advance as the eighth seed to face the league-best Celtics if they can defeat the winner of Wednesday’s later game between the Hawks and the Bulls.
Butler finished with 19 points, and Tyler Herro had 25 for the Heat, who played without key midseason acquisition Terry Rozier (neck).
The second-seeded Knicks won 50 games during the regular season, including three of four from the Sixers to win the season series.
But Embiid played in just one of those games, scoring 30 points in a 36-point Knicks blowout in Philly on Jan. 5.
