The Philadelphia 76ers were struggling. Outside of their superstar big man, they could not get anything going on the offensive end. Joel Embiid was their only consistent source of offense and he had to carry them to a 112-105 win over the Chicago Bulls by going off for 50 points and 17 rebounds.
He was terrific all night long as he scored efficiently shooting 17-for-26 and he went 15-for-17 from the foul line. It was another dominant performance for him in a season where games like this are starting to become the norm. This is what is expected out of him.
“It’s an honor really,” laughed Tobias Harris. “When you look at a guy like that, how dominant he is on the floor, and just his ability to make plays and to score out there, yeah, I’ll tell my kids one day I was playing with Joel Embiid. When they ask who’s the best play player you played with, I’ll say it’s Joel Embiid. It’s an honor to be out there with him on the floor.”
The Sixers needed all of it in this one. Harris had a big game in his own right, but he did not get going really until the third quarter as he was struggling to get into his own groove and into his own offense.
Tobias Harris on Joel Embiid: "I'll tell my kids one day I played with Joel Embiid. When they ask who’s the best player I played with, I'll say Joel Embiid." pic.twitter.com/GXGBagbcqF
— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) February 20, 2021
“It’s rare when you say this, but we needed every point tonight,” said coach Doc Rivers. “We struggled other than really Tobias and Joel, we just couldn’t get anything going, we were just having one of those nights. I thought they did a good job of pressuring Seth (Curry) knowing that he’s not normally the point guard, I think that took his legs away.”
It also did not help things that Harris was in foul trouble early and that forced Rivers to turn to his struggling bench unit earlier than he wanted to.
“Tobias gets in foul trouble early so that kills our rotations and the way we were going to play in the first half with him and the second group,” Rivers added. “Joel, we needed every basket he could give us tonight to win the game.”
Embiid is continuing to put up these otherworldly performances and they are becoming a regular thing for him night in and night out. It is not normal for any NBA player to be stringing together big performances such as these that he continues to put up.
“The performances that we get from these guys night in and night out, especially Jo is obviously what we need to win,” said Matisse Thybulle. “Jo’s just taking that to like a level I don’t think anyone was really prepared for, and he’s doing a great job.”
Thybulle has shut down a lot of the game’s top scorers as he is one of the better defenders in the league but even doesn’t know how anybody can stop Embiid at this point.
“It just feels like he’s unstoppable,” he said. “It’s hard to really know because we’re not trying to stop him, we’re just trying to feed the beast, but just going into a game knowing that this team knows a man’s averaging 30-plus a game, and they’re trying to make sure he doesn’t, but night in and night out he does, you start to think that maybe there’s just no answer for him.”
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