Embiid enjoys new experience as Sixers stop rot
NEW YORK — Joel Embiid has endured too much misery in the NBA to miss one of the fun days on the schedule.
So as soon as he knew his back felt up to it, he couldn’t wait to get on the court for his first Christmas Day game.
Embiid had 25 points and 16 rebounds, JJ Redick scored 24 points and the Philadelphia 76ers snapped a fivegame losing streak with a 10598 victory over the New York Knicks on Monday.
“Especially after what we’ve been through the past four years, I was so excited to play tonight because we’ve been through so much losing,” Embiid said. “And to be able to be one of the few teams in our league that can play on this day, it just shows you how much we’ve improved.”
Neither Embiid nor Redick was cleared to play until going through pregame warmups, and their presence gave the 76ers just enough to win their first Christmas Day appearance since 2001.
Embiid, who has been battling a bad back, powered through a big-man duel with Enes Kanter, who had a season-high 31 points and tied a career best with 22 rebounds. He joined Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell and Bob Lanier as the only players with a 30-20 game on Christmas, according to research provided to the Knicks by Elias.
“I respect the guy a lot because that guy didn’t play three, four years and coming back (at the) level he’s playing right now,” Kanter said of Embiid. “So it’s cool to play against, go against a guy like that.”
Redick, who missed the last game with right hamstring tightness, helped the 76ers pull away from an 89-all tie midway through the fourth quarter. He’s played in Christmas games before — and made clear again he’s not a fan of them — and he thought his young teammates responded well to their first opportunity.
“There’s a tendency to try to put on a show instead of just going out and competing, and I think we did a great job of just going out and competing,” Redick said.
Kristaps Porzingis scored 22 points for the Knicks, who fell to 22-30 on Christmas with their fifth straight loss on the holiday.
Backup point guard TJ McConnell had Philadelphia’s final eight points of the third quarter, and the 76ers pushed the lead to nine with about 9 minutes left in the game. The Knicks battled back to tie it 89-89 on Porzingis’ three-point play with 5:20 left, but Philadelphia scored the next seven to go up 96-89 on Redick’s 3-pointer with 3:34 to play.