Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid continued his impressive stretch of games on Saturday, leading the team to a 103-101 win over the Sacramento Kings at home. Philadelphia trailed by as many as 17 points in the third quarter before turning it around thanks in large part to Embiid.
The big fella had 17 points in the third quarter and made big plays in the fourth quarter to get the job done. He finished with 36 points on 10-for-18 shooting with 12 rebounds and six assists.
The final stat line is impressive when acknowledging he shot 1-for-5 for 12 points in the first half as the Kings took a 61-50 lead into halftime. That type of performance earned the respect of Kings interim coach Alvin Gentry.
“We played a really good basketball team with a guy that’s pretty much unstoppable,” said Gentry. “We held him to 38 (36) and that’s below his average, so I don’t know if anything else needs to be said other than that. He’s a little bit of everything. He’s part Shaq (O’Neal), part (Hakeem) Olajuwon, whatever you want to say. He’s just a tremendous player and he came back.”
Kings interim coach Alvin Gentry on Joel Embiid: ‘He’s part Shaq, part Olajuwon, part whatever you want to say.’
— Aaron Bracy (@Aaron_Bracy) January 30, 2022
Along with what Gentry saw, Embiid also earned high praise from Kings big man Damian Jones, who had a tough time defending Embiid on the night.
“He’s a tough guard,” said Jones. “He does a lot of things well. He scores the ball well, you’ve gotta try to figure out a way to guard him without fouling because he draws fouls so well. We fought ourselves back in the game, we had the lead and we lost it.”
Embiid continues to put on a scoring rampage. As the season continues Monday against the Memphis Grizzlies, he will need to find a way to get it done again in a tough matchup against Steven Adams.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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