PHILADELPHIA — Cam Johnson had already imposed his will on the night when he saw a direct path to the basket where Joel Embiid was waiting ominously for him in the last minute of the first half.

Johnson didn’t flinch. Johnson streaked past De’Anthony Melton and posterized the Goliath Embiid, to the shock of the Wells Fargo Center crowd and the Sixers’ goliath himself.

Johnson had scored 22 of the Nets’ 49 first-half points and had the boo birds venting on the Sixers while delivering the kind of emphatic Game 2 statement an underdog team on the road looking to take the series back to Brooklyn deadlocked desperately needed to make.

The Sixers, 96-84 winners, looked ripe for the taking. Embiid wasn’t scoring. James Harden wasn’t scoring (eight points against Mikal Bridges). Only Tyrese Maxey was scoring.

It was fun while it lasted.

Your only chance against a legitimate contender is to play all 48 minutes.

You step on their throats when their throats are gasping for air.

For 24 minutes, Cam Johnson was the best player on the floor.

Over the next 24 minutes, the Sixers blitzed him and turned him into The Invisible Man and Nets coach Jacque Vaughn didn’t have a Tyrese Maxey (33 points) to save the night.

Johnson was subdued in the interview room afterwards, and not even The Dunk could cheer him up.

“It don’t really mean that much … it’s just two points,” he said. “I thought Embiid was a step behind and I had a lane. I thought there were times last game where I should have dunked. So I just thought I’d take advantage of an opportunity at that point.”

Then later: “I’m more concerned about wins than dunks.”

A free throw and an uncontested jam in the final Garbage Time minute gave Johnson a playoff career-high 28 points.

“CJ has the ability to do this performance over and over again,” Vaughn said. “It makes me smile just thinking about what his game is right now and what it’s going to become. Do we need some other people to step up at home? Yes we do. Anyone you want to sign up, put ’em on a list, I’ll check that thing off. We need everybody to show up and be ready to play.”

Vaughn’s smallball tactics were cutting the Sixers down to sighs. Until the Sixers came out of the locker room with a raging fire and began extinguishing the hope. Tobias Harris buried a corner 3-pointer and in the blink of an eye it was Sixers 64, Nets 56 and Bridges (21 points, seven assists) was visibly upset with someone, or something, probably both. Johnson drilled a right corner 3-pointer to stop the bleeding. It was his only basket of the third quarter, and he appeared fatigued at the end of it.

“That zone kinda slowed us down a little bit,” Johnson said. “In playoff games like this, when they feel like they’re getting stops, that gives them juice.”

Fourth quarter now: Johnson missed a left wing 3-pointer and fell to the floor. Embiiid (20 points, 19 rebounds) exacted a measure of payback when he swatted away Johnson’s drive late in the fourth quarter.

The Nets (33) cannot rebound with the Sixers (56). They cannot shoot 37.5 percent and live to tell about it.

Johnson was asked about his first half.

“I got some good looks at it,” he said. “We played with a little pace, guys creating, and I was just kinda in the opportune spots in the first half. In the second, that zone I was in the corner a lot, and it just kinda mucked up the game from there.”

“Best dunk of your career?,” someone asked.

“I don’t think so, no,” Johnson said quietly.