Jaxson Hayes on Difficulty of Facing 76ers' Joel Embiid

Ever since making his NBA debut, Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid flashed the potential to become one of the best bigs in the game. These days, dominant performances are routine for Embiid, as he’s in the midst of another MVP campaign for the third-straight season.

The Sixers’ big man wrapped up the month of December by averaging 35 points while shooting 56 percent from the field and nailing 86 percent of his free throws on 11 attempts per game.

When the Sixers played their first matchup of 2023 on Monday night, facing the New Orleans Pelicans for the second time in a few days, Embiid’s offensive hot streak continued.

After Philadelphia’s Monday night victory over the Pelicans, New Orleans’ young guard Jaxson Hayes described the difficulty of facing a player like Embiid.

“It’s extremely hard to guard,” Hayes said after the game. “Especially when he’s not missing the mid-range like that. Normally, you’ve got to send multiple guys over, which causes rotations, which makes other guys even more open. So, it’s hard to guard that.”

Being a reliable three-level scorer, Embiid is oftentimes too much of a threat. Defenses are forced to either live with the risk of him going off in single coverage or bet on making other players cause the defense to pay when Embiid forces double teams and gets the ball out.

The Pelicans did what they could on Monday night, but that wasn’t enough to slow down the Sixers’ big man. After an 18-point showing in the first half, Embiid increased the volume of his shot attempts, which helped him produce 24 points in 18 minutes in the second half.

The All-Star center finished the night with a game-high of 42 points. He accomplished that scoring total while shooting 63 percent from the field. After wrapping up the second and final regular season outing against the Pelicans this year on Monday night, Embiid finished the two-game battle by averaging 40 points while draining 64 percent of his shots.

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