PHILADELPHIA — Joel Embiid said it was “great” to be put in the same conversation as Wilt Chamberlain after he became the ninth player in NBA history to score 70 points in a game and broke Chamberlain’s 76ers franchise record of 68 points in the process.
“Obviously, Wilt accomplished … everything [in] the history of this league, and basketball in general,” Embiid said after his 70 points helped the Sixers beat the San Antonio Spurs 133-123 on Monday night. “So to be in the same conversation, that’s pretty cool.”
Embiid finished with 70 points, 18 rebounds and 5 assists, a line that has never happened in NBA history before Monday’s game, according to ESPN’s Stats & Information.
“It was just a great night,” he said. “I had it going. I mentioned a few times, a lot of teammates are extremely unselfish and they just kept giving me the ball, and I just finished it.”
Embiid finished it over and over and over again, to the tune of going 24-for-41 from the field and 21-for-23 from the foul line, eventually reaching 70 points when he went coast to coast for a layup over multiple defenders with 1:41 remaining.
He also had a season-high 18 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 1 block and just 1 turnover in 36 minutes.
Embiid had 24 points in the first quarter, 34 in the first half and 59 — matching his prior career high, set last season at home against the Utah Jazz — after three quarters, when he closed the third with a stepback 3-pointer.
“The time that it kind of hit me, I thought, was the start of the third,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said. “I think he had a bucket and an and-1, like in the first minute. I was like, ‘Wait a minute, he’s already got like 37, 38, something like that.’ I was like, ‘Geez, that’s a lot, with a whole half to go.'”
Embiid, who won the NBA’s scoring title in each of the past two seasons, is now averaging 36.1 points this season — a full three points better than what he posted in MVP-winning campaign.