Joel Embiid: 76ers Got ‘Long Way to Go’ After Win vs. Blazers

The Philadelphia 76ers improved their record to 2-1 on Sunday night with a victory against the Portland Trail Blazers.

To no surprise, Joel Embiid was the star of the show, dominating in every major category of the game while appearing in fewer than 30 minutes on the floor for the night.

The All-Star big man picked up where he left off from Saturday night’s win over the Toronto Raptors and led the Sixers in shots taken with 22 total. Embiid knocked down 12 of his field goal attempts and drilled two from deep.

Of course, the big man feasted at the free-throw line as well. With 12 opportunities to snag points from the charity stripe, Embiid was successful on all but three of his free throws. By the end of the night, Embiid had produced 35 points, which marked a game-high.

Sixers head coach Nick Nurse called it an early night for Embiid and several select starters before entering the fourth quarter. As the Sixers were on a clear path to picking up a dominant win over a young Blazers team, there was no need to risk any setbacks from that point moving forward.

Through three games, the Sixers have looked solid, even with the absence of their ten-time All-Star guard James Harden, who missed every set of action this past week. Considering it’s still so early on, however, Joel Embiid doesn’t want to jump the gun over his team’s success.

“It's good to win, of course,” Embiid said. “We’ll take it. [The] first game could have gone either way, but obviously, our last three games have been pretty good, but we still got a long way to go.”

With a rusty Embiid and a new system in place, the Sixers struggled against the Milwaukee Bucks last Thursday, falling behind nearly 20 points in the first half. The star duo of Embiid and Tyrese Maxey allowed the Sixers to climb right back in it, but a late run conducted by Milwaukee’s newly-acquired Damian Lillard led the Bucks to put the Sixers away with a one-point win.

On Saturday night, the Sixers tipped off a back-to-back with a matchup on the road against the Toronto Raptors. It might’ve been another slow-ish start for the Sixers, but they collected a convincing win in the end, defeating the Raptors 114-107.

Grabbing back-to-back wins in the first three games is a great confidence booster for a team that started on the slow side, but the Sixers aren’t getting comfortable just yet.

“I think that as a team, we can still get better,” Embiid finished. “Like I said, it’s a good start, but with every single day, every single game, just have to try and find ways to get better.”

The Sixers will get the next few days off from games before returning to the court on Thursday for a matchup against the Toronto Raptors.