Joel Embiid, the reigning NBA MVP, took advantage of Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs on Monday night in Philadelphia, dropping 70 points on them. Following the Suns’ victory over the Bulls, Embiid revealed his feat to the media during his postgame news conference, and even Kevin Durant was left speechless. Although Embiid achieved a new career high in doing this, Philadelphia fans aren’t exactly clamoring for that.
The people in the City of Brotherly Love are incredibly eager to win another NBA Championship. At this stage, reaching the Eastern Conference Finals would be a satisfying accomplishment. It’s all about moving forward in the postseason for Embiid, who at last won MVP honors during the regular season. Reaching 70 points in an NBA game is a difficult feat. However, let’s not pretend that these athletes are acting in a defensive-minded era.
The current era of scoring is the most prolific that we have ever known. It seems like someone scores forty points each night. More than fifty every other night. Not that Embiid’s 70 isn’t noteworthy, but we have witnessed it. It was accomplished by Damian Lillard and Donovan Mitchell last year. This is not intended to belittle any of that; rather, Embiid is now seen as an MVP candidate and isn’t judged just on his individual achievements.
With the entire city riding on his shoulders, Embiid is predicted to succeed not just in January but also in May and, ideally, June. For Embiid, just putting up a ton of points is insufficient. However, we also can’t ignore the reality that the league is designed for these kinds of games. Five players have scored 70 points or more in a game since 2017. Wilt Chamberlain was the only player to have done that in the association’s history up until 2006. The NBA has made every effort to guarantee that huge scoring outputs happen more frequently because they want this.
When you reach a certain level as a superstar, people want you to be winning or at the very least competing for titles. Embiid’s big game impressed Durant since it’s something KD has never done. But KD’s résumé includes rings, MVP honors in the Finals, and a league MVP title. That’s what Embiid and the Sixers need to do next. Reaching the postseason’s second round will be a major victory. But in the end, it will depend on how far he can lead this club by late spring.
