Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid has to take on a lot of responsibility on a nightly basis. Not only does he have to be the team’s leading scorer, but he also has to attack double teams as well as being dominant on the defensive end.
In Sunday’s 115-103 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on the road, Embiid did not have a huge scoring night, but he did have an impressive game passing the ball. The big fella finished with 22 points, nine rebounds, six assists, and three blocks in what was a good all-around effort in the win.
Embiid was able to help Seth Curry get off to the good start he needed in order to help Philadelphia get off to the good start offensively. Embiid’s passing was able to help him get open and have 23 points in the opening quarter.
“He’s worked on it,” said coach Doc Rivers. “He works on his game, works on it all summer, but that’s the part that people feel like they can get to him on, and now he’s proven them all wrong. If you trap Joel, he’ll make you pay and that’s what he did today.”
Whenever the Thunder did try and trap Embiid, he would make the right passes in order to get a bucket. It reminded Rivers of one of the elite quarterbacks in the NFL.
“It was just great to watch because they kept walking over, coming over, and he was just patient,” Rivers said. “He just was directing, just picking people apart, no Aaron Rodgers, we’ll you can’t use that one because he’s from Green Bay, so but any other good quarterback, Tom Brady-ish is what Joel was today.”
For Rivers, if he can continue to get Embiid to understand that passing is going to be a big part of his success, then this will be a good development for him and the team. He can do so much out on the floor and with the shooting the Sixers have surrounded him with, it makes him that much more dangerous.
“Joel knew that they were going to trap, he never forced it, took his time,” Rivers finished. “I thought Joel was every bit as much as the point guard tonight, as anyone else on the floor. I thought he got Seth shots, he got Danny (Green) shots, when he does that, he becomes unguardable because you trap him, we get a 3, you don’t trap him, he scores. That was great and he saw it and I loved that he did.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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