It was quite a record-breaking night for Joel Embiid on Wednesday, as the Philadelphia 76ers completed a clean sweep in the City of Angels.
It’s hard to know where to start to describe the performance Joel Embiid put on for the fans in Los Angeles.
Therefore, here’s what the man himself said following his line of 46 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists and seven blocks:
"“I was just being aggressive. I did the same thing against the Clippers, and tonight I just wanted to come out, and get down low, and be a beast down there.”"
To say he was a beast would be putting it mildly, as the Philadelphia 76ers pulled away for the 115-109 win over the Los Angeles Lakers. From the tip-off, the Lakers simply had no answers for Embiid, as he basically had his way with whichever opponent was thrown his way.
To understand the significance of Embiid’s night, the following tweet typifies just how amazing this performance was:
#Sixers Joel Embiid was first player in NBA history with at least 46 points, 15 rebounds, seven blocks and seven assists in a game. He was first Sixer with at least 40 points since Allen Iverson had 45 in 2006.
— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) November 16, 2017
Embiid’s presence was simply overwhelming. Overall, when Embiid was on the floor, the Sixers were 34.9 points per 100 possessions better off on the offensive end, and 25.2 points per 100 possessions better on the defensive end. Over his 12 games so far this season, Embiid is now +86 when on the court, including +19 this game.
Throughout most of the game, Embiid enjoyed facing single coverage from the Lakers, including the much smaller Julius Randle for much of the fourth quarter. But as his seven assists on the night demonstrated, his instincts to find a teammate when facing a double-team were immaculate. Following the game, Lakers’ head coach Luke Walton noted:
"“Embiid is a handful down there …. He is a heckuva shooter … we tried a couple of different things but you got to tip your hat, he’s hitting pull-up 18-footers, they used him as a post-pass man to enter the ball from the post and he is relocating to the strong side corner and hitting 3’s. He’s — he’s a problem.”"
Almost as impressive as Embiid’s obscene stat line was his efficiency, hitting 14-of-20 from the field, 2-of-3 from 3-point range, and 16-of-19 from the free-throw line. Equally as impressed as Walton following this performance was Sixers head coach Brett Brown:
"“I mean he was obviously dominant. You try to find that balance of not walking it up the floor every time and just posting Joel, we ended up doing that….Tonight we realized that we have Joel Embiid, and the stat line that he produced was just dominant.”"
This game obviously capped a magnificent stint in Los Angeles for Embiid, as outlined in the following tweet:
.@JoelEmbiid is the first @sixers player with consecutive 30-point, 15-rebounds games since Charles Barkley – 11/28/1988 and 11/30/1988 (@eliassports)
— Sixers Stats (@SixersStats) November 16, 2017
But as his customary style, it was left to Embiid to have the final say on the night via Instagram (note the location:)
At just 23 years of age, and with only 43 career games under his belt, it’s truly frightening to imagine just how good Embiid could become if afforded a clean bill of health moving forward.
Next: 2017-18 Week 5 NBA Power Rankings
Embiid and the Sixers now fly home before facing a return leg with the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors. Considering the confidence he has gleaned from the past two contests, this promises to be one of the feature games of this early part of the season.