When you score a career-high 49 points, you’re bound to have a few eyes on you. For Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid, he had the attention of his coach and his teammates after a 129-112 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday.
Embiid was terrific all night using an array of moves to score the 49 points. He shot an efficient 17-for-24 from the floor and he also stepped to the line and he made 14-for-15 from the charity stripe. With the team missing Ben Simmons, it was a performance that the Sixers needed on a big night.
“Just what you all would say: he was dominant,” said coach Brett Brown. “He was dominant making his free throws. He was dominant as an interior presence. Scoring that volume of points at that efficient of a rate is impressive. I thought the thing that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet that he did as well as anything was that he handled the double teams. Whether he passed out of it because there was a crowd, whether he went quick because the double teams were coming and he didn’t get involved in that. I thought he handled the double teams really well.”
This is a good point that Brown brought up. Without Simmons, the Hawks focused all of their defensive efforts on the big man. They doubled him all night long and he continued to make the correct decisions out of it all. Despite those doubles that came, he continued to have one of the best nights of his career.
“He could do that every single night out there if he wanted to,” said Tobias Harris. “I think you saw him go out there tonight and impose his will. I just think he did a really good job of picking the game apart from the beginning. He saw the double-team and kicked it out really fast a couple of times and adjusted to how they were sending the double-teams. He went quick on a lot of his post-ups, and he kind of really picked the game apart from the low block and found a lot of different ways to get going tonight. He was dominant.”
Tobias Harris on Joel Embiid: “He can do that every night” #Sixers pic.twitter.com/BVpsFZTGtc
— Ky Carlin (@Ky_Carlin) February 25, 2020
The challenge for this team is, as it always has been, winning on the road. They are now 27-2 at home and that’s great. The 9-20 road record is such an eyesore for this team that it could hinder them at some point. That is an area that absolutely has to be better.
With Embiid playing this way consistently, that mentality, it will a long way for them. [lawrence-related id=26434,26415,26423]