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Dominant Joel Embiid the MVP Favorite After Dropping 51 on 20-Win Timberwolves

Kevin Kinkead

By Kevin Kinkead

Published:

Photo Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Joel Embiid is the reigning MVP and somehow got better in the offseason. Wednesday night, he dropped a 50-piece on a Timberwolves team that came into the Wells Fargo Center with the NBA’s best record and 3x Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert. The performance pushed him past Nikola Jokic in the early-season MVP odds:

Full stat line vs. Minnesota: 51 points on 17-25 shooting, 0-1 from three, 17-18 from the foul line, 12 rebounds, three assists, two steals, one block, two turnovers

“You’re seeing something pretty cool right now, right in front of us,” said Nick Nurse of Embiid’s performance. “Maybe it just goes back, I think I heard him say a week or so ago, maybe 10 days ago that his mindset is to go out there and dominate every single night, and I like that as a starting point. I think he only had 10 in the first quarter tonight, if I’m not mistaken. Which he’s been kind of close to getting 20 in some of those, so I kind of like that as well. And just the combo of, they did try to stay closer, take away some of the getting the ball to him and that means Tyrese has to turn on the jets or bounce out there and go. And there was a segment where in the fourth he was able to do that. But I actually thought Joel started a little slow and didn’t have quite the pop… he went on a little reverse layup, and it didn’t quite get it up to the rim one time and I was like ‘uh-oh what’s going on.’ But I thought he really, late second-half all that stuff, I thought he really looked — I don’t know. It’s like every time he takes a shot, you think it’s going in, it’s a really high percentage.”

Embiid shot 12 for 14 from the floor in the second half, and the Sixers pulled away with a 37-point fourth quarter.

The Sixers PR team includes statistics in a postgame recap sent to media, and these ridiculous nuggets were included on Wednesday night:

  • JOEL EMBIID (51 points, 12 rebounds) tallied his 12th consecutive game with at least 30 points and 10 rebounds, marking the longest such streak since the NBA-ABA merger. He is the fifth player all-time to produce at least 30 points and 10 rebounds in as many as 12 consecutive games.
  • Embiid’s season-high 51-points also represents his fifth straight game with at least 35 points, matching a franchise record previously set by Hall-of-Famers WILT CHAMBERLAIN (Feb. 13-22, 1965) and ALLEN IVERSON (April 7-14, 1997). Embiid is averaging 41.8 points and 13.0 rebounds during this five-game stretch.
  • Embiid tallied a season-high 51 points, as he and TYRESE MAXEY (35 points) combined to score 86 points on 59.2 percent shooting. These 86 points represent the second-highest scoring game by any duo this season, trailing a mark set by the same duo on Nov. 12 against Indiana (87 points).
  • This marked the second 50-point game for Embiid this season, both of which have resulted in double-doubles. Those two 50-point double-doubles are tied for the league lead (GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO). This was the seventh 50-point double-double of Embiid’s career, the second-most in 76er history and the most by any player in the NBA since the 2020-21 season (Stathead).

You look at Embiid’s seasonal and career splits and there’s nothing singular that jumps off the page and slaps you in the face. He’s shooting 54% from the floor, same as last year, but averaging almost two more field goals per game, so his PPG is up from 33.1 to 35.1 this year. Free throw attempts are holding at 11.7, but his percentage is up to 89.3%, which is incredible for a seven foot player. He’s averaging 1.5 more assists per game and 1.6 more rebounds per game year-over-year, so we’re really just looking at steady improvement across the entirety of his game. And he’s doing it playing 34.1 MPG this season, down from 34.6 last year. If he was out there 36 minutes per game, the extrapolation would give you nightly averages of 37.1 points, 12.4 rebounds, and 6.2 assists.

To get a little more specific, there’s been a noticeable improvement in the mid-range/face up game, which was already elite. This year he’s shooting 46.1% between 3 and 10 feet, and 53.5% between 10 and 16 feet, and both of those numbers are up by 2 to 2.5% percentage points. Then you take it a step further, and go from 16 feet to the three point line, and he’s hitting at 54.3%, which is a career high and more than five percentage points better than what he did last year. (numbers via basketball reference)

It really is incredible to watch. He somehow got better. And I know we were all out on Joel after that Game 7 performance against Boston, but if this version of Joel can somehow, some way show up in the playoffs, watch out.

Kevin Kinkead
Kevin Kinkead

Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com

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