Philadelphia’s Cameroonian pivot Joel Embiid, NBA MVP last season, entered a very exclusive club Monday evening by scoring 70 points in his team’s victory against the Spurs of French rookie Victor Wembanyama. Before Embiid, only eight players had scored 70 points or more in an NBA game: legend Wilt Chamberlain (record holder, with 100 points scored in 1962), Lakers winger Elgin Baylor (1960), Denver winger David Thompson (1978), Spurs center David Robinson (1994), Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (2006), and finally, three players still active, Phoenix guard Devin Booker (2017) and Cleveland guard Donovan Mitchell (2023), and Bucks Damian Lillard, then in Portland (2023).
70 points, 18 rebounds, 5 assists
To his 70 points (24/41 on shots, 21/23 on free throws), Embiid added 18 rebounds and 5 assists, for a 133-123 victory against the San Antonio Spurs of Victor Wembanyama, who did not deserve , with 33 points and 7 rebounds. “It feels good,” Embiid said after the victory, thanking his “extremely generous” teammates. “I was hot, they just gave me the ball and made sure I was always in the best positions. And hats off to the staff too, I’m surrounded by extraordinary people!”
“He can score in so many different ways,” praised his coach Nick Nurse. “His size (2.13 m) gives him a wide range of possibilities near the backboard and allows him to get free throws. And his shooting touch is what makes him very difficult to stop. When he is motivated like that , everything can happen.”
Sixth decisive victory for Embiid and his family
Embiid’s performance helped the Sixers record a sixth straight victory. With 29 victories and 13 defeats, they are in 3rd place in the Eastern Conference. Opposite, despite the solid performance of “Wemby”, the Spurs suffered their 35th defeat of the season, for only 8 victories. They are last in the Western Conference. “He’s incredible, he’s great,” Embiid commented on the French rookie, whom he faced Monday night for the first time. “For me, he is already one of the best players in the League, he obviously has a great future awaiting him.”
Asked about a possible surplus of motivation against Wembanyama, whose arrival in the NBA was highly anticipated, the 2023 MVP dodged: “It doesn’t matter who is on the court. That’s my state of mind: attack, dominate offensively and defensively. Tonight it was the same thing.”