Joel Embiid Peaches Team Play After 53-Point Outing vs. Hornets

76ers center Joel Embiid was just happy to win after another 50-plus-point outing.

After claiming he wants to do better to lead by example for his teammates, Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid put on another stellar show on Sunday night as the Philadelphia 76ers hosted the Charlotte Hornets.

Putting up eight points in his first nine minutes on the floor, it was hard to predict Embiid would heat up for another 50-plus-point outing. 

But Embiid’s second-quarter run changed the perspective. With an eight-minute shift in the second quarter, Embiid accounted for 20 of the Sixers’ 41 points.

After the game, Embiid stated one of the Sixers’ sayings when describing his second-quarter run. 

“You’ve got to feed the hot hand,” said the big man. Considering he was responsible for 28 of the Sixers’ 61 first-half points, Embiid certainly established himself as the hot hand.

“My teammates, if I just score once, it doesn’t matter anybody on the team, if they just score once, then you’ve got to keep feeding them until the defense stops them once, twice, or three times,” Embiid continued. “In that situation, I just kept scoring, and I just kept getting the ball.” 

Embiid didn’t slow down in the second half. By hitting on five of his eight shots from the field in his next ten minutes on the court, Embiid added 11 points to his scoring total. Since the Hornets kept climbing back after the Sixers led by as much as 19 points in the first three quarters, Embiid collected another five minutes on the court in the final quarter. 

Nearly perfect from the field, Embiid produced 14 more points as the Sixers closed out their Sunday night matchup against Charlotte with a 131-113 win. Embiid, who checked in for 34 minutes, put up 53 points. It marked the second time Embiid exceeded 50 points this season.

The Sixers’ big man became the first player in the league to produce multiple 50-point performances this season. Following the matchup, Embiid claimed that the personal achievement only mattered because the 76ers reached their ultimate goal for the night. 

“We won,” said Embiid. “It’s good to do that when you win. It would suck to have those types of scoring nights if you lose. I’m just happy that it’s contributing to winning. Every time I score a lot, whether I’m scoring a lot or not, especially when I’m scoring a lot, at the end of the day, what matters is if it brings us the win. It seems like every time, it brings us the win. I just got to keep trying to be efficient and try to play with my teammates, and good things happen when you worry about the right things. That’s moving the ball, and the ball just found me.”

The Sixers collected their second-straight victory on Sunday. With that win, they improve to 14-12 on the year. Now, Embiid and the Sixers focus their attention on the Sacramento Kings, who will come to South Philly on Tuesday night. 

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