The Philadelphia 76ers, off from sluggish progress to start this season, have been calling for urgency. With Joel Embiid stepping up when it mattered the most, the Philly faithful can only do nothing but rejoice.
Embiid emerged heroic for an all-time night of his life, posting up a career-high 59 points, 11 rebounds, and eight assists, while having a monstrous defensive 7 blocks to lead the Sixers in moving against the Cinderella team Utah Jazz on Sunday, 105-98.
He became the first player in NBA history to polish 50 points, 10 boards, five rebounds, five assists, and five blocks in a game since blocks became an official stat by the association in the 1973-74 season.
Imposing his big body and skillful arsenal against Utah who got no decent answer to contain him, Embiid was on a tear and put on a shocker performance in front of the people questioning his spirit to will Philadelphia from a slow skid.
Embiid told reporters that he felt he is on pace for his masterful performance after draining his first three of the night.
Though he only made one out of his five attempts, the center still went on to dominate and feast against the lanky frontcourt slate of the Jazz.
“When I finally made a 3 because I’ve been shooting the ball so bad this year from 3,” Embiid said, via Ky Carlin of Sixers Wire. “I don’t know what’s going on. I got a couple days to fix it and I’m gonna fix it, but it was early in the game. I saw how they were guarding me. Just like last night, I’ll take that every night. If they’re not gonna double team as much, I hope every team does it so I’ll take it, but from the beginning. Just trying to see what they were doing and where the spacing was and just try to attack it, but obviously, in the fourth quarter with the game being so close, I just wanted to do whatever it took.”
Perhaps the ultimate highlight of his career performance is the fact that he carried the Sixers in the last frame to topple the Jazz.
Embiid scored 26 out of the 27 points by Philly in the fourth period, giving himself a chance to ultimately drop a near 60-point outing.
“It’s fun, but then again, I always go back to can’t get too high, can’t get too low,” said Embiid about his fourth-quarter takeover. “Tonight, those shots that I took, I usually make them and some nights, I’m gonna miss them. I’m just happy that they went in. It all went back. Like I said, my teammates knew who had the hot hand and they just had to feed me and I thought when I got double-teamed late in the fourth, I made the right plays, but like I said, we did it as a team.
“Then obviously, defensively, with the game that close, I had to be aggressive and make sure that they didn’t get any easy baskets.”
Pulling their record now at .500, Embiid and the Sixers will continue to build momentum as they duel the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday off from a lengthy four-day rest.
