Joel Embiid Credits Teammates for Career Night vs. Jazz

Many speculated whether Joel Embiid would take the floor for the Philadelphia 76ers or not on Sunday night against the Utah Jazz.

As the big man appeared on the court for a season-high 40 minutes on Saturday, Sunday’s matchup seemed like a prime opportunity for the big man to take the night off, especially since he’s been dealing with a shoulder issue and tweaked his ankle in the win over the Atlanta Hawks.

Despite mentioning he would monitor his ankle situation, which caused uncertainty in his playing status against the Jazz, Embiid warmed up with the intention of playing on Sunday. Sure enough, the All-Star big man was in the starting lineup and firing on all cylinders out of the gate.

Through the first quarter, Sixers head coach Doc Rivers kept Embiid on the floor for the entire 12 minutes. Considering the Jazz led the Sixers on the scoreboard, Embiid was carrying his team offensively as he shot 4-9 from the field and 5-6 from the free-throw line to collect 13 points.

After getting some rest, Embiid played another six minutes before halftime. From the field, the star center remained sharp as he went 4-5 and snagged another 11 points. Despite having 24 points at halftime, Embiid and the Sixers trailed the Jazz 57-51.

“We were down on the score,” Embiid said after the game. “So, I had to be more aggressive and try to do whatever it took to win.”

Embiid didn’t take the challenge of getting a win by any means necessary lightly on Sunday night. As the star center checked in for another seven minutes in the third quarter, Embiid chucked up another six shots from the field, draining four of those attempts and producing another nine points.

Thanks to Embiid’s offensive contributions in the first three-quarters of action, the Sixers were tied with the Jazz going into the fourth quarter. Embiid had 33 points going into the final quarter of the outing, which is nothing out of the ordinary.

However, his fourth-quarter performance was nothing short of spectacular.

After getting a breather, Embiid played for all but 57 seconds of the fourth quarter on Sunday. The big man had a handful of visits to the free throw line, which helped him generate 12 points off 15 attempts. In addition to his foul shots, Embiid was highly-efficient from the field as he knocked down all but one of his eight shots. In the fourth quarter, Embiid accounted for 26 of Philadelphia’s 27 points, willing the Sixers to a 105-98 victory over Utah.

“It’s fun, “ said Embiid when asked about how he felt during the fourth quarter. “But then again, I always go back to, 'Can’t get too high, can’t get too low.' You know, tonight, those shots that I took, I usually make them. Some nights I’m gonna miss them. I’m just happy that they went in. Then again, like I said, my teammates knew who had the hot hand, and they just had to feed me. I thought when I got double-teamed late in the fourth, I made the right plays. We did it as a team.”

Embiid was clearly the star of the show between both teams on Sunday night as he notched a new career-high by draining 59 points in the victory. But the starting center doesn’t want to take all of the credit for the victory.

“This is not about me,” said Embiid. “You know, we did it as a team. Obviously, the coach put me in those positions, and my teammates fed me the ball. I thought we had great spacing around everything we were doing. All the credit goes to my teammates, just being in the right spots, trusting me, and giving me the ball.”

The Sixers defeated the Jazz and picked up their seventh win of the year. Now, they'll get the next few days off before returning to the court on Friday night to face the Milwaukee Bucks.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.