The NBA didn’t do the Nets any favors on Friday, but Mother Nature sure did.

Philadelphia’s MVP candidate Joel Embiid is expected to miss Game 4 of their first-round playoff series on Saturday after an MRI exam showed he has a sprained right knee, ESPN reported on Friday night.

The 76ers hope Embiid will be able to return early next week, according to the report.

The center, who has dominated the undersized Nets in leading the Sixers to a 3-0 lead the series, escaped a suspension Friday when the NBA declined to upgrade the flagrant 1 foul he committed against Nic Claxton early in Game 3 to a flagrant 2.

Embiid, after falling to the court, kicked Claxton when the two got tangled under the basket and the Nets center was stepping over him.

The Nets did catch a break later in the game Thursday when Philadelphia’s James Harden was ejected, on a questionable call, after he hit Royce O’Neale.

Before the league ruling and health update on Embiid became known Friday, the Nets and Sixers remained on different sides of the argument.

“I don’t really get it,’’ Cam Johnson said of Embiid being allowed to stay in Game 3.

“I thought precedent was set just a day or two ago,’’ Johnson said, referring to the Warriors’ Draymond Green being tossed earlier in the week for stomping on the chest of the Kings’ Domantas Sabonis. “I don’t want to get into it because I don’t know what I can say and what I can’t say, but I thought that was a surefire one.”

Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn stood by what he said Thursday, that he had “never seen” a player remain in a game after “intentionally” kicking an opposing player in that area.

“I know my stance [on the Embiid play] hasn’t changed,’’ Vaughn said Friday. “It’s the same as [Thursday]. I am looking forward to hearing the league’s response. I’ll wait to hear that. [Thursday] night, I focused on watching the film and getting [the team] ready to get a win on Saturday.”

Not surprisingly, 76ers head coach Doc Rivers had a different view than Vaughn regarding Embiid’s status.

“If we’re going to start punishing the retaliators and not the instigators, then we’ve got a problem in this league because … and I love Jacque, but I can’t believe we have coaches campaigning for guys not to play,’’ Rivers told reporters. “That’s just nuts to me.”

Embiid went on to make several plays Thursday night to help tip the scales in Philadelphia’s favor, though the 76ers had to close out the win without Harden, who was tossed in the closing seconds of the third quarter.

Dorian Finney-Smith said Harden’s ejection was “a makeup call a little bit.”

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“I don’t think James’ [foul] was as serious as Joel’s,’’ Finney-Smith said. “It’s not my decision to make.”

Rivers called Harden’s ejection “a joke” on Friday, though he acknowledged that Embiid’s play could have gone “either way.”

Johnson called Embiid’s play against Claxton “excessive and unnatural and not basketball-like. I thought it hit all those, but I guess they saw it differently.”

He also said the Nets weren’t looking for any help from the league in trying to win Game 4.

“We’re not gonna rely on somebody getting kicked out of a game,” Johnson said. “That’s not how we want things to go. We’re gonna play against whoever they put out there. We’re not gonna ask for anything extra. That’s not our call and not our concern.”

Instead, though, Embiid’s balky knee may do what the NBA did not.