SI:AM | Joel Embiid Did Something Not Even Wilt Chamberlain Did

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Thanks to Joel Embiid for doing something remarkable last night, because I truly had no idea what today’s newsletter was going to be about otherwise.

In today’s SI:AM:

???? Joel Embiid goes off for 70

???? 62 for Karl-Anthony Towns

???? The origins of college basketball’s winningest coach

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Making a case to repeat as MVP

Joel Embiid etched his name in the history books last night with an incredible offensive performance that eclipsed even the great Wilt Chamberlain in some ways.

Embiid erupted for 70 points on 24-of-41 shooting (58.5%), including 21-of-23 from the line in the Philadelphia 76ers’ win, 133–123, over the San Antonio Spurs. He also had 18 rebounds (nine offensive) and five assists.

Here are the facts:

• Embiid’s 70 points broke Wilt Chamberlain’s Sixers franchise record of 68. (Chamberlain played for the Philadelphia Warriors when he had his 100-point game.)
• Embiid joined Michael Jordan as the only players in NBA history with 65 points, 15 rebounds and five assists in a game.
• Embiid joined Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor as the only players in NBA history with 70 points and 15 rebounds in a game.
• Embiid is the first 7-footer to score 70 in a game since David Robinson in 1994.
• Embiid became just the fifth player since Robinson to score 70 in a game (joining Kobe Bryant, Devin Booker, Donovan Mitchell and Damian Lillard).

You can watch every basket from Embiid’s monster game here. Reading the stats is one thing, but it’s something else to watch how Embiid did it. Of his 24 made shots, 10 were midrange jumpers. Nine of those came from inside the circle at the top of the key. On several occasions, Embiid got the ball near the free throw line, sized up Victor Wembanyama and stepped back to shoot a jumper over Wemby’s long, outstretched arm. Wembanyama is one of the few players in the league big enough to effectively get a hand in the face of the 7' Embiid, but Embiid was unbothered by Wembanyama contesting those shots.

Embiid also punished Wembanyama (and backup center Zach Collins) in the post. Embiid is listed at 70 pounds heavier than the French rookie and used that size advantage to back Wembanyama down to create easy looks at the basket.

The other big factor in Embiid’s success was his effort on the offensive glass. He collected nine offensive rebounds, many of them off his own misses. When he did miss a shot, he chased it down and, more often than not, collected the rebound to give himself a putback opportunity.

But Embiid did not shoot much from behind the arc. He took only only two threes and made one of them. That’s not unusual for Embiid, who’s a capable outside shooter but is averaging just 3.2 attempts per game from deep. It does stand in contrast to what Karl-Anthony Towns did last night, though. Towns dropped 62 in the Minnesota Timberwolves’ 128–125 loss to the Charlotte Hornets. It was the first time since April 9, 1978, that two players scored 60 points on the same night. Towns was firing away from long range all night. Fifteen of his 35 field goal attempts and 10 of his 21 makes were from three. But Towns fell off a cliff in the fourth quarter, going just 2-for-10 from the floor as the T-Wolves squandered a healthy lead and lost the game.

Embiid, on the other hand, was crucial to leading a shorthanded Sixers team to victory in a game against the lowly Spurs that was closer than they would have liked. He was already making a case to repeat as MVP this season, but dropping 70 could be the game voters look back on at the end of the season when deciding on their ballots. Embiid leads the NBA with 36.1 points per game and is fifth in rebounding with 11.6 per game. He’s the biggest reason why the Sixers are in third place in the Eastern Conference at 29–13, especially now that James Harden is no longer around to complement Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. They’re 3–7 in the 10 games Embiid has missed this season.

The fact that Embiid is playing at this level is remarkable when you consider how his career started. He missed the first two seasons of his career with a foot injury, then had a knee injury end his promising rookie season prematurely. After playing just 31 games in his first three seasons, it was fair to wonder whether he would have an NBA career at all or if the Sixers’ decision to take him with the No. 3 pick would prove to be one of the worst draft decisions ever. But Embiid has stayed mostly healthy since then and blossomed into one of the best players in the league. He’s led the league in scoring in each of the past two seasons, becoming the first big man since Shaquille O’Neal in 1999–2000 to win a scoring title and the first since Bob McAdoo (1973–74, ’74–75 and ’75–76) to do so in back-to-back years. Embiid is not only enjoying the sort of successful career that seemed impossible during his injury-plagued early years, he’s on his way to becoming one of the all-time greats.

The best of Sports Illustrated

• Gilberto Manzano has a list of 10 teams not playing in conference championship games this weekend that could still be Super Bowl contenders next year.
• After another dominant weekend for home teams in the NFL playoffs, Tom Verducci examines why home field advantage is weaker than ever in baseball.
• After Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer became the winningest coach in college basketball history, Emma Baccellieri spoke with some of her players from Idaho, where she began her coaching career in 1978.
• Alex Miceli laments that amateur Nick Dunlap’s historic PGA Tour win was overshadowed by the NFL playoffs.
• Dunlap will not play in this weekend’s Farmers Insurance Open.
• WWE Raw, cable’s longest-running show, is moving to Netflix next year in the streaming service’s first major foray into live broadcasts.
• The Titans are reportedly hiring Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan as their next head coach.

The top five...

… things I saw last night:

5. Kelly Oubre Jr. hilariously sizing up Victor Wembanyama.

4. The Penguins’ unfortunate own goal with the net empty on a delayed penalty. The Coyotes were on the powerplay at the time and became the first team in NHL history to score a power-play goal without a shot on goal.

3. Kevin Durant’s reaction to learning Joel Embiid had 70.

2. Hornets announcer Eric Collins’s loud “NO!” as Karl-Anthony Towns pulled up for another three.

1. Jaylen Brown’s vicious crossover that dropped Luka Dončić to the floor.

SIQ

Klay Thompson set an NBA record on this day in 2015 by scoring how many points in the third quarter of a game against the Sacramento Kings?

• 29
• 33
• 37
• 41

Yesterday’s SIQ: The New England Patriots beat the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC championship game, 23–20, on Jan. 22, 2012, when which Ravens kicker missed a 32-yard field goal attempt with 15 seconds left?

• Matt Stover
• Billy Cundiff
• Stephen Hauschka
• Shayne Graham

Answer: Billy Cundiff. He had been first-team All-Pro the year before but struggled that season, making just 75.7% of his kicks (fifth worst in the league). Though the missed kick cost them a chance to continue their season, the Ravens solved their kicking issues rather quickly. They signed Justin Tucker as an undrafted free agent before the 2012 season to compete with Cundiff in training camp. Tucker beat Cundiff out, and Tucker became the best kicker in NFL history.