PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers have leaned on Joel Embiid and he answered the call again on Sunday in a 112-93 win over the visiting Washington Wizards. It was a wire-to-wire win on a night when the Sixers led by as many as 25.
Embiid was once again dominant. He scored 34 points on 12-for-21 shooting, and he shot 10-for-12 from the free-throw line. Nobody the Wizards threw on him could slow him, and he took advantage.
“Just trying to be aggressive,” Embiid said. “When you’re aggressive, you’re worried about the right things, the ball will find you. That’s a matchup against Washington, I think the last time we played them, we lost, but I think I had like 47 points.”
Embiid had 48 points in a 116-111 loss to the Wizards on Dec. 27. The Sixers didn’t have a great night on the defensive end, so the big fella wanted to be sure that he set the tone for Philadelphia on both ends.
“I just knew going into the game that if I was aggressive offensively and defensively just trying to do my job to help everybody else, I knew that we would have a chance,” Embiid added. “The ball just finds the right energy. The ball just found me.”
Embiid only played 31:11, and he didn’t have to play at all in the fourth quarter. That was a big difference from Friday’s win over the Portland Trail Blazers when he had to throw the Sixers on his back and rally them from a 21-point deficit.
“It was great,” the big man added. “I love not playing in the fourth quarter. It means we’re doing something good. So, gotta keep building on that, but we did it as a team. Everybody contributed and it’s is all about really how we started the game. Intensity defensively. We didn’t go down to 20 this time so it makes it easy.”
Embiid and the Sixers head out for a three-game road trip beginning with Wednesday’s matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The contest will begin a stretch of seven road games in their next eight contests.
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