NBA

76ers teammates praise Joel Embiid after his ‘effortless’ season-high 50 points vs. Wizards

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Antonio Kozlow
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Antonio Kozlow Sports Editor

Antonio is a life long sports enthusiast and professional journalist, who shares an obssesive urge to find and dig up the most interesting facts to guide gamblers towards more exciting, yet safe bets. In his own words, ''you can never really know enough about the things you love''.

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Updated07 Dec 2023

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This Wednesday night, Joel Embiid dropped his sixth-career 50-points game, which was also his highest account of the current season. The reigning league MVP also added 13 rebounds to his stat line as the Sixers defeated the Wizards 131 to 126.

The Philadelphia star was still 9 points away from tying his career-best 59, which was reached over a year ago against the Utah Jazz. Joel hit 19 of 24 from the field, scored one of his two attempted three-pointers, and made 11 of 13 free throws.

The 76ers center, who returned from a two-match absence due to an illness, also posted 7 assists and 6 turnovers. “Sometimes your team needs you to be a playmaker, sometimes they need you to score and I felt like it was one of those nights where I had to be aggressive and get it going,” Embiid expressed. “But they made passes, they made the right plays every single time and I just finished them.”

Teamate Tyrese Maxey, who also contributed with 26 points and 7 assists, believes Joel fell short. “He should have had 60,” he joked about Embiid’s display.

De’Anthony Melton, on the other hand, pointed out how easy the big man made things look. “It was quite 50,” his teammate shared. “He was just going out there effortlessly shooting the ball and scoring.”

While the reigning MVP was assessed a technical for protesting after being called for traveling in the third quarter, Washington actually extended their lead by six points. However, the Sixers big man used his frustration to end the quarter on a 10-0 run.

“He’s our safety valve – offensively, defensively. That’s why he’s the MVP,” Melton added. “He covers up for a lot of our mistakes defensively and then offensively he can bail us out late and make some shots.”

Jordan Poole led the Wizards squad with 23 points, but couldn’t help his team from losing their 17th game of the campaign.

“In general, I thought the effort, the overall intent was better tonight. The defensive disposition was much better,” said Washington coach Wes Unseld Jr.. “So you come up short, but I thought that was somewhat of a bounce-back for us.”

Kelly Oubre Jr. finally made his return to the NBA courts after being struck by a car almost a month ago

After being part of a hit-and-run incident on November 11, Kelly Oubre Jr. finally made his way back to the competition after missing out on 11 contest while he recovered. The guard scored 12 points during 19 minutes of play.

“I was worried about him a little bit,” head coach Nick Nurse revealed. “I was worried about him in the half about what kind of rotation I was going to use with him in the second half, but his second half was amazing. I thought he was kind of the spark with a bunch of stuff, so really happy.”

Earlier this week, the player didn’t give too much attention to all the people who’ve been questioning his account about what really happened with his injury.

“This was and is a very traumatic situation for me and my family,” Kelly said on Monday. “So, I just wish that my life wasn’t like ‘The Truman Show’ where everybody kind of watched it and have their own opinion about my life.”