Joel Embiid faces a legacy series against the Knicks. He’s never looked more prepared.

He has the coach, the co-star, and the complements, and if he had all of those things in his first six trips to the postseason, Joel Embiid would not need a win the way he does right now.

Heavy is the head that is forced to carry the baggage of a franchise that spends five years getting every major decision wrong. There is a long and distinguished list of players who did not win the Big One with the Sixers.

J.J. Redick, Jimmy Butler, Al Horford, James Harden. They have 12 conference finals appearances among them, but none in the six years combined they played alongside Embiid. There are two ways to look at that, but only one that people will choose.

The baggage is monogrammed with one set of initials.

J H E

There is a big difference between not winning the big one and not being able to. But, hey, Embiid isn’t going to win that battle. The worst thing he can do is try. This is a legacy-defining series for the big man. It is also a paradox. Embiid is up against an opponent that does not lend itself to hero ball.

Trust will be the operative word for the NBA’s reigning MVP when he takes the court at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. Trust his teammates. Trust his coach. Trust his instincts.

It is not about me.

It is not about me.

It is not about me.

Embiid needs to make it his mantra. To prove what he alone needs to prove, he must realize that he can not prove it alone. The Sixers might end up losing this series as a team. They aren’t going to win it as anything but.

The most underreported element of the Sixers this season is the on-court maturity of their star. That’s partially due to his absence from the eight weeks of the schedule where the world begins to pay attention. It’s also due, in part, to another uptick in his other-worldly scoring numbers.

» READ MORE: The Sixers hired Nick Nurse to get out of the second round. Now they have a path to do it.

Coming off an MVP year in which he averaged 33.1 points per game, Embiid somehow managed to improve on that. It was his fourth straight season having done so: from 23.0 to 28.5 to 30.6 to 33.1 to 34.7. The little things get lost in the shuffle when you drop 70 in a game.

Those little things are now the biggest reason to believe in the Sixers.

This was the year Embiid became a fully-formed offensive player. You saw it primarily reflected in his passing numbers. Entering the season with 27 games of seven-plus assists over his career, he reached that total a startling 16 times. Keep in mind, he played only 39 games. If he had played 70 at that pace, he would have reached seven-plus assists 28 times.

The all-important kicker: The Sixers went 15-1 in those 16 games.

The most legitimate knock on Embiid during his first seven seasons was his tendency to disappear when he was not scoring.

For all of the attention he attracted on the court, he did not leverage it like other superstars do. Too often, he would take what the defense gave him without counter-punching, without exploiting the coverages to his team’s advantage. He became more spectator than an active participant, lingering near the three-point line and letting his frustration show. That has changed.

We saw it throughout the Sixers’ 105-104 play-in win over the Heat on Wednesday.

His scoring numbers were reminiscent of previous playoff disappointments. With three minutes left in the game, he had scored just 15 points. After an eight-point flurry in three possessions that gave the Sixers the lead, Embiid attempted just two more shots, his teammates scoring the last nine points of the game. He finished with 23 points on 6-of-17 shooting.

Yet he was very much present. He was active. He did not allow the ball to stick in his hands. When he did, he did so with a purpose.

“It means a lot,” Embiid said afterward. “We stuck together. It shows you that. I don’t play my best, I don’t get to my spots the whole game until the fourth quarter, and we still found a way to win.”

Go back to those closing minutes. Game tied at 96, with 45 seconds to go. Shot clock is winding down. Embiid is straddling the three-point line, bracketed by two defenders assigned to remove his elbow jumper.

There are three red shirts in his immediate vicinity. He seals one of them off and calls for the ball. He holds the ball high and strong and out of harm’s way while peering over his shoulder and surveying the court. He faces up, looks to his right, and sends a defender scurrying to an open Nicolas Batum in the corner. As he does, Embiid spots Kelly Oubre under the basket with a defender on his back.

In one smooth, instantaneous motion, Embiid pumps a swing pass toward Batum, then raises the ball over his head and zips a two-handed pass to Oubre. Oubre hits the layup and gets fouled. The game is never tied again.

“I thought they certainly did a great job, built in a huge scheme to make things difficult for him, but he made some big plays,” Nurse said.

Watch the video of that sequence. There is no clearer example of Embiid’s growth. If you have been watching him from the beginning, you will recognize the implications. The road between the Sixers and the NBA Finals has never been harder. Yet, somehow, they’ve never looked more poised to make a run.

The Knicks are a tough team with a tough coach and a tough crowd. That adjective is prone to overuse this time of year. It is the only one that fits here.

The Sixers do not need Embiid to be the player everyone envisions when they say he needs a signature postseason win. They need him to be the player he has become. They need him to block out the noise in one of the NBA’s most overwhelming environments.

A legacy series? Sure. Embiid just needs to play like that isn’t the case.

» READ MORE: Joel Embiid’s progress, defending Jalen Brunson and more Sixers-Knicks storylines to watch