Watch: Joel Embiid Blocks Kawhi Leonard Twice In Big 76ers Win

PHILADELPHIA, PA — Down to potentially their final game and on their heels after two straight losses to the Toronto Raptors, the Sixers came up huge on Thursday night to even the series at 3-3 and force a decisive Game 7.

Once again, Joel Embiid proved to be arguably the most influential factor of the game. The series has largely swung on a pendulum of the strength of his knee, the health of his body, the ability of Toronto's Marc Gasol to contain him defensively, and Embiid's own defensive dynamism.

On Thursday, all of that swung in the Sixers favor.

Embiid ended the game with 17 points and 12 rebounds, but, like the final 112-101 score, that tally does not tell the full story of Embiid's importance.

He was a monstrous plus-40 on the night (the Sixers led the Raptors by 40 when Embiid was on the court), and that was despite contributing almost no offense until the third quarter.

He dominated the defensive end of the court, but the highlights were two huge stops on Raptors star Kawhi Leonard, who has been unstoppable thus far in the series:

On the night the Sixers were able to limit Leonard, who was largely responsible for Toronto's all-important Game 5 win, to "just" 29 points. Though that's not really stopping him in any meaningful sense, merely preventing another monstrous performance was enough to give the Sixers control of the game from the opening tipoff.

The bad news: officials called a flagrant foul on Embiid when his hand came up and hit Gasol in the face as they went for a rebound. The replay hardly makes it look intentional:

Nonetheless, it's Embiid's third flagrant foul of the postseason. If he's assessed one more, he'll be suspended for a game, per NBA rules.

To make the whole situation even more frustrating, the foul came in the fourth quarter, with the Sixers already leading by 21.

The Sixers played well all around. Ben Simmons broke out in a big way for 21 points, six assists, and eight rebounds, while Jimmy Butler was stellar again, with 25 points, eight assists, and six rebounds.

The Sixers take on the Raptors in Toronto on Sunday at 7 p.m. The winner will face the Milwaukee Bucks, who defeated the Boston Celtics four games to one, in the Eastern Conference Finals.