The Orlando Magic were almost helpless on Wednesday night. The young, scrappy team had built up a 10-point lead at the half behind a big night from Mo Bamba, but Joel Embiid went on a rampage all night and he lifted the Philadelphia 76ers to a 123-110 win at home.
Embiid was phenomenal all night as he dropped 50 points on 17-for-23 shooting and he also shot 15-for-17 from the free-throw line as he attacked everybody on the Magic. It was just one of those nights where a team has to tip their cap, shake your hand, and move on.
“That was a heck of a performance by him,” said acting Magic head coach Jesse Murmeys. “He’s been playing at an MVP level. We had a double team on for most of the game except for some minutes when Robin (Lopez) was on him, but the way he was playing there was really nowhere to get him because it wasn’t really on the block. He was shooting fadeaways and stepbacks, I mean he was impressive and it was a heck of a performance by him.”
Embiid did this against a terrific defender in the form of Bamba. The young Magic big man is a heck of a shot-blocker as he is able to use his length to bother a lot of opposing big men. That didn’t matter against Embiid as the Philadelphia superstar used his smarts to be able to make it look easy.
“It’s tough,” said Bamba. “His just general presence out there offensively. He’s bringing the ball up the court, he’s shooting 3s, he’s obviously posting up, and making a lot of physical plays. He’s a tough cover, but I think if we did a little bit better job of sticking to the game plan, I think we would’ve had a little more success there.”
Embiid had 20 points in the opening quarter and then he added 23 points in the third quarter. Just for reference, the Magic as a team had 23 points in the third quarter. It was just an impressive all-around performance for Embiid as he continues to earn the respect of everybody in this league.
“You’ve gotta tip your hat in this league,” Murmeys added. “There’s great players, they make great performances, and we will watch the tape and learn from it and see where we could’ve done a better job trying to just make it more difficult on him.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01eqbvq570kgj8vfs7 image=https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
[listicle id=57101]
[lawrence-related id=57511,57508,57505]