Joel Embiid Drops 53 as 76ers Take Down Charlotte Hornets

With another stellar performance from Joel Embiid, the 76ers managed to pick up their second-straight win by defeating Charlotte.

Following the Philadelphia 76ers’ overtime victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night, Joel Embiid mentioned that he’s been doing his best to lead by example. 

“I often hear a lot about, if I'm not more than Joel Embiid, the rest of my teammates follow,” Embiid said on Friday night. “I’ve heard that quite a bit, so I just wanted to come out and really send a message to them and show them that here's me playing hard and obviously scoring the ball. Everybody also got to follow, and they did, so just got to do it every night."

Embiid went into the LA matchup with a specific mentality and made it out of the 11-point victory with 38 points, 12 rebounds, and five assists while draining 74 percent of his shots from the field.

How did Embiid follow up after a stellar performance against the Lakers? The big man continued to keep the ball rolling two nights later.

When the Sixers first played against the Charlotte Hornets this year, Embiid was off the floor as he battled a mid-foot sprain. Without Embiid, the Sixers fell short of the Hornets.

On Sunday night, Embiid wanted to get payback for his teammates.

After firing off 20 points in the first quarter of Friday’s game against LA, Embiid had a much slower start on Sunday in comparison. However, the Sixers’ big man was still a key contributor on offense, as he scored eight points in a little under ten minutes.

In the second quarter, Embiid put his foot on the gas and took his play up another notch. In his next eight minutes on the floor, Embiid drained six of his eight shots from the field. He also went 7-7 from the charity stripe. As a result, Embiid produced 20 points, helping the Sixers outscore the Hornets 41-33 before the half.

Sunday night’s halftime score made it seem as if the Sixers were well on their way to a blowout victory, which would’ve ensured Embiid would get the rest of the night off. But the Hornets continued fighting back, issuing Embiid and the Sixers a stiff challenge.

With another ten minutes on the floor in the third quarter, Embiid hit on five of his eight shots to tack on 11 more points to his total. Going into the fourth quarter, the big man was on pace to have another 40-plus-point performance after registering three earlier this year.

By checking in for another five-minute shift in the fourth quarter, Embiid was nearly perfect from the field, hitting on all but one of his six shots. With another four free-throws converted, the All-Star big man accounted for 14 of Philadelphia’s 35 fourth-quarter points on Sunday.

In the end, Embiid wrapped up the matchup with 53 points, marking the second time he exceeded 50 points this season. The big man drained 63 percent of his shots from the field in the process as the Sixers got revenge on the Hornets and took them down with a 131-113 win. 

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