Philadelphia 76ers: Top 20 plays of the 2018-19 NBA season
By Derek Hryn
8. Joel Embiid throws down side windmill vs. Warriors
To be the best, you have to beat arguably the best team in NBA history. The Sixers split games with them this past season.
At the beginning of February, Philly would attempt something it hadn’t been able to accomplish in six years – beat the Golden State Warriors. What made it a more daunting task was DeMarcus Cousins appearing in his home debut.
The Warriors, who were riding the momentum of an 11-game winning streak, went into the matchup fairly flat — an unusual staging from them, especially in front of their home crowd. But that shouldn’t distract from how well the Sixers executed throughout the game, spearheaded by their two cornerstones Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, who matched each other with 26 points.
Embiid fattened his stat line with 20 rebounds and five dimes, while Cousins, an adversary in the ongoing “best center” discussion, paid homage to his powerful windmill douse before halftime:
The Sixers notched one of their best wins of the year in Oracle Arena, and outshot Stephen Curry‘s Warriors from beyond the arc.