Joel Embiid got a close-up look at Victor Wembanyama and then got right to business against the Spurs’ rookie.
Embiid posted a franchise-record 70 points to lead the 76ers’ 133-123 win over San Antonio on Monday night, adding a career-best 18 rebounds to go with five assists, a steal and a block for good measure.
“I wouldn’t sit here and lie to you, but that’s my mindset every single game,” Embiid said afterward on the local TV broadcast. “My mindset is to attack, dominate offensively and defensively, so tonight was no different.”
The 29-year-old Cameroon native bested Wilt Chamberlain’s record of 68 points in a single game, set in 1967.
“To be in the same conversation, that’s pretty cool,” Embiid said.
The win was the 76ers’ sixth in a row and extended Philadelphia’s home win streak to four games.
For his part, Wembanyama notched 33 points, seven rebounds and two blocks on the night — after cameras caught Embiid jokingly sizing up the 7-foot-4 Frenchman during warmups.
Embiid, standing at 7-foot himself, is rarely on the smaller side of NBA measuring contests.
He didn’t wilt in the face of the first pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, effortlessly pouring in points on 24 of 41 shooting — hitting an early 13-footer over the rookie, who responded with a pair of 3-pointers with 27 seconds.
“Obviously he can score in so many ways, just his sheer size gets him a lot of stuff around the basket, gets him a lot of free throws,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said. “The shooting touch is the skill part. The way he moves, the skill he has, the size he is, and he gets motivated like that, anything can happen I guess.”
It took just three quarters for Embiid to tie his previous career high of 59 points and once he re-entered the game with 6:38 left, his 76ers teammates kept feeding him the ball.
To celebrate, they doused him with water during his on-court postgame interview.
It marked Embiid’s 21st straight game with at least 30 points.
The reigning Eastern Conference player of the week entered Monday’s game averaging 35 points, 11.4 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 1.9 blocks for the 76ers as a prime candidate to repeat as the league’s MVP.
His performance came on the same night that the Timberwolves’ Karl-Anthony Towns scored 62 in a loss to the Hornets.
“I was actually surprised he didn’t beat me,” Embiid said of Towns. “I heard he had like 45 at halftime. … He obviously did it in a different way. I had one 3 and he had 10 of them. That’s amazing.”
— with AP
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