Embiid takes game up to master’s level
76ers big man makes impact felt all over court
There’s a video clip making the rounds that could easily be rebranded as a 12-second crash course from Joel EmbiidUniversity.
It opens with Embiid standing behind the 3-point line on the right wing and Tyrese Maxey biding his time with the ball near half court. As the shot clock dips below 10 seconds, Embiid glances to his right and sees Furkan Korkmaz in the nearside corner. Suddenly, Embiid snaps to attention and begins waving his arm toward the far left corner, where guard Charlie Brown Jr. is stationed. Seeing the big man’s gesticulations, Brown and Korkmaz both leave their respective corners, passing each other on the baseline before settling into theother’s old home.
Two seconds later, his thought process becomes clear. After setting a screen and rolling left down the middle of the key, he gathers in a pass from Maxey and watches the help collapse to protect the rim, leaving Korkmaz alone in the corner. Embiid takes a couple of dribbles, kicks out to Korkmaz, andthe veteran jump-shooter knocks down a 3-pointer to give the 76ers a 10-point lead in an eventual 115-109 win overthe Spurs.
“Whenever he has the ball it feels like he knows what he is doing,” Korkmaz said a couple of nights later. “He doesn’t rush, he reads the game, he reads the floor, especially in the second half he knows that we expect some push from him.”
Whether you call him Joel or Embiid, the 27-year-old center is in the midst of a run that should remove any doubt about his rightful place among the game’s elites. His 42-point outing against the Pelicans on Tuesday night was his sixth game of 40-plus points this season. Going into a game Saturday night against Sacramento, he had scored at least 31 points in 14 of 16 games, moving him within four-tenths of a point of James Harden (29.3) for the league lead entering the weekend.
While Embiid’s impact on the game is much greater than his numbers, the numbersare of some interest. Consider:
• Embiid is one of three players in the last 30 years to average at least 34 points and 10 rebounds over an 18-game stretch. Both of the other players finished their respective seasons as MVP. (Russell Westbrook in 2016-17 and Shaquille O’Neal in 1999-00.)
• Embiid’s six games of 40plus points are the most in the NBA this season. Last year’s leaders were Steph Curry (11), Bradley Beal (8), and Damian Lillard (6). In 2019-20,Harden had 21.
• Embiid’s 20 games of 30plus points are one behind LeBron James for the league lead. He’s on pace to finish the year with 35 games, which would be the most in 76ers history by any player not named Allen Iverson. Iverson’s team record is 49 games of 30-plus points in 2005-06. He finished four other seasons with at least 35 gamesof 30-plus points.
• Embiid has four games with 15-plus free throws made, most in the NBA this season.
• Barring injury, Embiid will play in his 300th career game within the next couple of weeks. At the moment, he is one of eight players in NBA history with 7,500 points and 3,300 rebounds in his first 297 career games. The other seven are all Hall of Famers: Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bob McAdoo, Walt Bellamy, Elvin Hayes, Shaquille O’Neal.
• Embiid’s 95 games of 30plus points are the 16th-most in NBA history through 297 career games. Among active players, only James and Durant had more. Of the 13 inactive players on the list, only Mark Aguirre is not in the Hall of Fame.
Seven months after turning in one of history’s all-time great postseason performances on a bum knee, Embiid is again poised to enter the All-Star break as the NBA’s most obvious MVP candidate. Now as it was then, the only question is health. He has already missed a quarter of the 76ers’ 48 games, including a ninegame absence while he battled COVID-19 early in the season. He’ll need to avoid his annual spring trip to the injured list in order to solidify his case.
That said, there’s a reason the 76ers have been more than willing to live with Embiid’s checkered injury history. Just ask Pelicans center Wily Hernangomez, who spent 30 minutes of his Tuesday night on the receiving endof Embiid’s punishment.
“Honestly, I’m exhausted,” Hernangomez said. “And he still got 40.”
For accuracy’s sake, he actually got 42.