Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid has been on a tear in recent weeks as he has stepped his game in plenty of different ways in order to lift the Sixers to victories. He topped all of that on Wednesday in a 123-110 win over the Orlando Magic at home.
The big fella dropped 20 points in the opening quarter which set the tone for an absolutely phenomenal night. He then scored 23 points in the third quarter on his way to tying his career-high with 50 points on only 17-for-23 shooting in only 27:03 of playing time. It was a night where the Magic did not have any answers for the big fella.
After it was all over, coach Doc Rivers could not come up with any words to describe the performance.
“No,” said Rivers. “He was unbelievable from the start. I thought he tried to set a tone for us early. He was just really good. Just dominant in every way. Every shot was the right shot, the right move so it was great.”
The first quarter was probably the most impressive thing about his night. Embiid scored 20 of the team’s 25 points in the opening quarter and the only other starter to score was Tyrese Maxey. At one point, he was outscoring the Magic by himself.
“He’s kinda been doing that all year, to be honest,” said Tobias Harris. “Tonight was just even more obviously, 50 points, but he’s been our anchor all year. His dominance on the floor is evident pretty much from the second he jumps on the court and gets going. We expect that of him and tonight, you’re just seeing a full-on effort, and to be able to do it on 23 shots, that’s impressive. That’s extremely impressive.”
There was really nothing going through the big fella’s head at that moment. He just wanted to continue to lead the team to a win.
“Just still play basketball the right way,” said Embiid. “I thought even tonight, I was making fadeaways all over the place and getting to the free-throw line, but at the same time, I was still moving the ball. It’s all about playing the right way. The ball is always gonna find me. These guys, they have a lot of trust in me, and they’re always looking for me.”
Embiid obviously has the trust of his teammates as he is the guy that drives the engine here, but it always seems that he is getting the ball in the right spots and he is able to dominate from there.
“It doesn’t matter at any time of the game,” he added. “The ball is always gonna find me. I should never have to worry about not getting enough shots. It’s all about playing the right way and tonight, obviously, you combine the ball finding me and making a bunch of shots and that’s the result.”
With Embiid on the bench in the fourth and the Sixers up big on the Magic, Rivers wanted to get him back in there to for his career-high.
“It was so early enough,” said Rivers. “I grabbed Sam and said, ‘tell Joel I’m gonna get him in to get him out’. So we went to him, got him in, got him out, that was perfect. I didn’t want him out there more than a minute or two so that was perfect.”
Embiid had a chance for 51 at the free-throw line, but he only made one of the two so he had to settle for tying his career-high rather than setting it.
“I think he wanted 50,” Rivers laughed. “That’s all I can come up with.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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