Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doc Rivers has never seen anything like Joel Embiid’s performance at both ends in Sunday’s 105-98 win over the Utah Jazz.
Embiid scored a career-best 59 points, with a joint career-high seven blocks, along with 11 rebounds and eight assists.
The Cameroonian scored 26 of Philadelphia’s 27 final quarter points and more than half their total score, a feat not achieved in the NBA since Damian Lillard in 2019.
“I’ve seen a guy score a lot of points,” Rivers told reporters. “I haven’t seen guys score a lot of points, rebound, and then the blocked shots. That was impressive.
“He was just getting everything. I’ve never seen a more dominating performance when you combine defense and offense.”
Joel Embiid’s 59 points marks the 5th best scoring performance in 76ers franchise history:
Wilt Chamberlain – 68 PTS (12/16/1967)
Wilt Chamberlain – 65 PTS (02/07/1966)
Wilt Chamberlain – 62 PTS (03/03/1966)
Allen Iverson – 60 PTS (02/12/2005)
Joel Embiid – 59 PTS (11/13/2022) pic.twitter.com/ac6Hljn0g6— NBA.com/Stats (@nbastats) November 14, 2022
Embiid’s teammates were left in awe too, with Matisse Thybulle labelling his stat line as “pretty ridiculous”.
“It’s absurd. Actually, my friends were texting me after the game and they were like ‘It’s like a 2K stat line’ and it’s not one of those things you see in a real basketball game,” Thybulle said.
“It’s like when you pick one player on 2K and just do everything with him. It’s pretty ridiculous if I’m being honest. It’s amazing.”
Embiid’s 59 points is the best in the NBA this season, exceeding Darius Garland’s mark of 51 set earlier on Sunday in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 129-124 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Since blocks became official in 1973-74, Joel Embiid is the first player in NBA History to record 50+ points, 10+ rebounds, 5+ assists, and 5+ blocks in a game. https://t.co/xtwTgbCmmC
— NBA History (@NBAHistory) November 14, 2022
Despite his monstrous performance, Embiid played down the significance of his individual display.
“This is not about me. We did it as a team,” the 28-year-old center said. “Obviously, the coaches put me in those positions, and obviously, my teammates fed me the ball. I thought we had great spacing around everything we were doing.
“Like I said, all the credit goes to my teammates just being in the right spots and trusting me and giving me the ball.”
Embiid shot 19-of-28 from the field including making a three-pointer, which reinforced to him that it was going to be his game.
“When I finally made a three [I knew it was going to be a big game] because I’ve been shooting the ball so bad this year from three,” he said.
“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… Obviously, in the fourth quarter with the game being so close, I just wanted to do whatever it took.”