Joel Embiid was ‘disappointed’ with the Sixers crowd. Right back at ya, big guy.

Joel Embiid said he was disappointed with the Sixers crowd in Game 4. Well, good news. The fans who stayed home are easy to identify. They’re the ones currently skipping around town whistling guitar riffs from ‘80s hard rock anthems while holding their StubHub account balances high above their heads.

It doesn’t matter how they spent their Sunday afternoon. Maybe they cut a half-acre of grass with a push mower. Maybe they went shopping for curtains. Maybe they spent 2½ hours at the farmers’ market debating the finer points of this year’s South American soy bean harvest. Doesn’t matter, whatever they chose to do. They crushed their most important decision of the weekend: not to watch the Sixers.

They didn’t watch the Sixers get outrebounded 15-9 on the offensive glass.

» READ MORE: Sielski: The Knicks are better than the Sixers in every way. Oh, and New Yorkers took over the Wells Fargo Center.

They didn’t watch them get outscored in the paint, 44-32, by an opponent whose starting center spent the second half in foul trouble and whose backup was out with an injury.

They didn’t watch them get bullied to the brink of another early offseason by a Knicks team that Embiid claimed was inferior.

There were no winners at the Wells Fargo Center on Sunday. There were only losers. Half in the literal sense, half in the sense of being from New York.

“Disappointed,” Embiid said of the boisterously pro-Knicks crowd that turned out to watch him score one point in the fourth quarter of the Sixers’ 97-92 loss in Game 4. “I love our fans. I think it’s unfortunate. I’m not calling them out, but it is disappointing. Obviously, you have a lot of Knicks fans, and they are down the road. I’ve never seen it and I’ve been here for 10 years. It kind of pisses me off, especially because Philly is considered a sports town. They’ve always shown up. I don’t think that should happen. It’s not OK.”

I’m going to go out of my way to be fair to Embiid, so bear with me. He did not bring up the crowd on his own. A reporter broached the topic. All Embiid did was answer. He did so in the midst of a number of other questions that offered him plenty of opportunity for self-flagellation.

Should he have entertained the interlude? Maybe not. The Sixers had just allowed Jalen Brunson to score 47 points, Donte DiVincenzo to hit a couple of killer threes, the entire Knicks team to will themselves to every consequential loose ball in the fourth quarter. Embiid didn’t hit a single shot in that final period, his only point a lone free throw. He was clearly gassed, logging 44 minutes with Bell’s palsy and a surgically repaired knee. He did it because the Sixers had nobody else, and he was one of only two in the bunch to finish with a positive plus-minus. But he has said himself that he only cares about winning. Yet again, he presided over a loss.

Could he have answered the question in a way that kept the focus where it belonged? No doubt. Consider the way Nick Nurse responded when asked about the hostile nature of the crowd.

» READ MORE: New Yorkers took over Wells Fargo Center as Sixers-Knicks shifted to Philly

“I don’t put much stock in that,” Nurse said. “I think we can win here or win there or win anywhere. We just have to play better.”

That’s a professional answer from a professional coach. But, then, Embiid is Embiid. Therein lay the implications.

If Embiid was truly disappointed in the Game 4 crowd, it is mostly a testament to the resilience of a superstar’s ego and the detachment that life in a locker room can breed. There was nothing unusual about it. Anybody who has his finger on the pulse of the real world has long understood that the Sixers are wearing on everybody’s patience.

The fatigue started settling in long before Embiid went down with his latest late-season injury. Long before he returned from an eight-week absence with only a day or two of forewarning. Long before he left Game 1 after apparently aggravating the injury five minutes before halftime. Long before the Sixers fell behind 2-0 in this series.

The human spirit can only take so much. The Sixers spent five years determined to find that limit. They achieved it last summer, in the minds of a critical mass of casual fans. I am speaking from personal experience, so there is plenty of selection bias baked in. But Game 4 offers some concrete evidence for the phenomenon. The Sixers are losing hearts and minds.

I spent much of the first few months of the season trying to convince people that this year’s Sixers were different. They were likable. They were fun. They were well-coached. They were the rare Sixers team that might actually exceed expectations. The response I usually heard: “Haven’t watched a minute. We’ll see what happens in April.”

They are seeing it now, same as always. The Knicks are an excellent team, better than any series opponent since Nurse’s 2018-19 Raptors. They should beat the Bucks, they could beat the Celtics. Anybody who loves basketball, who loves competition, would be a fan of these Knicks.

» READ MORE: Sixers stand one loss away from elimination after a 97-92 Game 4 defeat to the Knicks

The problem with the Sixers isn’t just that they are on the other side of this series. It’s that they are on the other side of a team that is, existentially, what basketball fans in this city want their team to be. A team that hits the big shots, that finishes strong, that outworks you on the glass to a decisive advantage. A team that imposes its will and leaves its opponent insisting things could have been different.

Nurse and Daryl Morey will need to consider these things after this series ends, whether it is in Game 5 in New York on Tuesday or shortly thereafter. In Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, the Sixers have the makings of a force that should be reckoned with this time of year. At the moment, though, it looks the same as it did before. You can forgive people for tuning out.