If Joel Embiid and Jimmy Butler want to be top dogs, they need to lead the Sixers’ pack | Marcus Hayes

TORONTO — One wants to be MVP. One wants a max contract. Neither progressed in either pursuit in Canada Saturday night.

Joel Embiid says he longs to be the NBA’s best player, but for the second postseason in a row he finds himself stymied by a superior post defender. Embiid missed seven of the eight shots he took against his nemesis, Marc Gasol, in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinal, and he still hasn’t hit a three-pointer against Gasol the past two seasons; he was 0-for-1 Saturday in the 108-95 loss to the Raptors.

Jimmy Butler scored 10 points on 4-of-12 shooting and finished a minus-23. After this season, he will be part of the same free-agency class that will feature Kawhi Leonard, who scored 45 on Saturday, and Kevin Durant, who has scored 45, 50 and 35 in his last three playoff games for Golden State.

All are eligible to receive a five-year, $190 million contract. At least two of them are worth it.

It wasn’t just that Embiid and Butler played poorly Saturday. It’s that the Raptors’ elite execution gave them pause.

“Their length, and their attention as a crowd, gave hesitance to the people that you just mentioned,” Sixers coach Brett Brown said Sunday.

Brown’s plans for response?

"It’s just stuff — structurally; placement; movement; spacing. All those basic-type things.”

Brown was terse. Brown was clipped. Brown was justified.

Brown had watched his two alpha dogs get their noses smacked, and he’d watched them simply take it. This is a moment of crisis, and he knows it. The Sixers’ biggest ballers need to show up and show out. It is the only reason they are here — not because Hulu has live sports, or to administer lavish Easter egg hunts.

Endorsements are fine. Corporate bonding — super. Get the cash. Be generous.

But when it’s time to play, play like a boss.

If the NBA is a league of stars, and if the six-year “Process” hinged on acquiring young assets and turning them into stars, then Embiid is supposed to be the Sixers’ centerpiece; Butler, the finishing piece. This is the playoffs. They both were coddled all season for this very moment, their minutes monitored, their participation modulated.

Failure now by Embiid and Butler would give “load management” a whole new meaning.

It’s time to earn their money. Embiid made more than $25 million this season; Butler more than $20 million. They accounted for 41 percent of the team’s salary cap. They scored 27 percent of the team’s points Saturday. They shot 30 percent (9-for-30) from the field. Why?

Because Danny Green and Pascal Siakam battered Butler all game, then smelled his breath every time he touched the ball. Every time Butler got the ball in scoring position, Kawhi Leonard’s Spidey-sense went off, and whoever Leonard was guarding became Priority No. 2.

And because every time Embiid touched the ball, Gasol dragged his 34-year-old bones up into Embiid’s 25-year-old face, and moved his pigeon-toed feet whenever Embiid moved, and let his narrow chest absorb Embiid’s powerful shoulders, and used his 7-foot-4 wingspan to keep his hands in Embiid’s face. It was virtuosic, like a moose dance ballet.

It also was predictable.

Embiid is now 7-for-26 in three games when Gasol guards him this season, according to stats at NBA.com. Those are, by far, Embiid’s worst numbers against anyone who regularly guarded him. That includes the Celtics’ Al Horford, who muzzled Embiid in the 2018 Eastern Conference semifinal.

The day after the Sixers added forward Tobias Harris, the Raptors made a deadline deal for Gasol, specifically to match up against Embiid. Gasol had won a Defensive Player of the Year award, but that was six years ago, and it was media award. The league’s coaches voted for the all-defensive teams, and Gasol was a second-teamer that season — the only season he made either the first or second team. Gasol is a good defender. Embiid makes him look great.

Embiid now is 11-for-37 when matched up against Gasol the past two seasons, 29.7 percent, almost 20 percent worse than his normal shooting accuracy. Gasol gives him no ground: Embiid has missed all 10 three-pointers he’s taken against Gasol. That’s right: 0-for-10.

Brown can talk all he wants about scheming better to help Embiid, about moving the ball to get Butler into better positions, but this is basketball at its most simplistic. Embiid and Butler had plenty of chances Saturday. They missed, and they stumbled, and they deferred.

Leonard, the Raptors’ established star, and Siakam, their rising star, combined for 74 points on 28-for-38 shooting, 73.7 percent. Butler, established, and Embiid, ever rising, combined for 26 points and shot 30 percent.

Neither Butler nor Embiid spoke at Sunday’s workout, but there was little left to say beyond Embiid’s postgame admission:

“Their two best players showed up. I didn’t tonight.”

He wasn’t alone.