Joel Embiid took his mask off to save the Sixers’ season. It still didn’t work.

With fewer than 20 seconds left on the clock and the 76ers trailing by two in an elimination game against the Celtics, Philly went to its workhorse, its all-star big man, its generational talent, Joel Embiid. He took his mask off for this moment, and you couldn’t have drawn it up any better.

Embiid was exactly where you’d want him to have the ball: on the low block against Aron Baynes. But unlike the countless times he’d done in the regular season, he failed to showcase the depth of his post-up repertoire in crunch time. Embiid missed a shot with a difficulty level of 2/10, and when he grabbed his own rebound, Terry Rozier swooped down from the perimeter and forced a turnover.

Embiid could only grab his head in frustration. That was his basket to make. You can argue a foul should have been called, but Embiid should have made the shot anyway.

The 76ers still didn’t go away. After Rozier made a pair of free throws, J.J. Redick earned every penny of his one-year, $23 million contract when he drilled a deep, deep three with just four seconds left.

But that Embiid miss ended this game, and effectively ended Philly’s season. Marcus Smart had come in clutch the play before, cleaning up Jayson Tatum’s missed layup. Then he forced a turnover flopping trying to draw a charge on Dario Saric.

And when the 76ers went for a Hail Mary pass with no timeouts and just 2.4 seconds left on the game clock, Smart was Boston’s cornerback.

76ers-Celtics had a wild ending, and it’s a series we’ll look forward to watching every season from here on out. But this game could have gone a totally different way had Embiid made that two-footer.

He didn’t. Now this one’s over.