PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers cruised to a rather easy 146-128 win over the rebuilding Washington Wizards on Monday night. The win marks their fifth straight as they continue to develop under new coach Nick Nurse.
The win was solid, but the performance of Joel Embiid stands out. The big fella tortured the Wizards to finish with 48 points on 17-for-25 shooting, 11 rebounds and six assists in 30 minutes. He was terrific in the third quarter: He had 29 points on 10-for-10 shooting in the third stanza.
“That’s a lot of points in 30 minutes of playing time,” said Nurse. “I think he got most of them in the third quarter. I don’t think he missed a shot … 29. 10-for-10? Yeah. That’s pretty efficient.”
Embiid was doing it all. He was scoring on the block, getting to the line, and he was also hitting the mid-range jumper. When that jumper is going, he’s tough to stop.
“He’s good at basketball,” Tyrese Maxey said. “It’s funny, I tell people, like he’s ready to go now. It’s four or five games in. He’s found his rhythm. He’s hitting his middies. I think they kinda made him mad early.”
It was a bit of a slow start for Embiid and the Sixers. The Wizards were getting into the paint, and big man Daniel Gafford had success for Washington. He had three dunks early, and he had five blocks in the first quarter.
Then, Embiid started cooking. He helped the Sixers end the first quarter on a 22-6 run to take full control of the game.
“They came in and they kinda pissed me off,” Embiid said afterward. “Obviously, they were playing hard and they made a lot of shots. I just wanted to make sure that we were more focused as far as getting stops and offensively, just winning and getting whatever we wanted, and I thought we did a pretty good job. Especially, at the end of that first quarter.”
Maxey, who had a terrific game of his own with 22 points and a career-high 11 assists, has seen these types of performances from Embiid plenty of times. He knows what must be done from his standpoint when he is on the floor with the big fella.
“Find a way to get it to him,” Maxey said. “Just try to make it easy on him and be ready to cut when they double and things like that, but it’s nothing you can really do in those games, defensively. Trap him, he’s so strong. He gets to the free-throw line so easily and when he’s hitting the middy, it’s tough.”
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