Joel Embiid scores 51 points in Sixers assault of Timberwolves

Joel Embiid scored 51 points in a matchup with the NBA’s No. 1 defense, powering the Sixers to a 127-113 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Here’s what I saw.

The Good

— They’re certainly not going to put the first quarter of this game in the Smithsonian as a culturally significant piece of basketball history. But despite sputtering through the first few minutes of the game, the Sixers were eventually able to settle in and pull ahead of Minnesota, mostly because they had Joel Embiid.

It can lead to some heinous possessions and cries of disgust from opposing teams/fanbases, but Embiid’s ability to put himself at the free-throw line repeatedly is part of why he has been a two-way juggernaut for years. The Wolves are as equipped as anyone in the league to keep him off of the line, but he went right at their ultra-big frontcourt and had the entire frontline in foul trouble in the first half. Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns each had two fouls before the first quarter was over, and Naz Reid joined them in that club after playing a few more minutes than normal to spell their top guys.

Once he forced Gobert and Towns into more passive play on defense, the big guy got the midrange jumper working. Gobert has been back at his DPOY level this season, but Embiid is still able to give him fits on that end by forcing him to step away from the rim to guard repeated jumpers from around the elbows. After he’d calibrated his touch from the charity stripe, Embiid was able to shake off some early misses from the field and build midrange momentum going into halftime.

Gobert does not look unsure against basically anybody on the defensive end, and Embiid had given him enough fits in this game that he was begging for his coaches to bail him out of fouls by the time the third quarter arrived. When he picked up his fourth foul on an Embiid-made jumper, Gobert walked with his arms out toward Minnesota’s bench, hoping someone would see a replay on their tablets to warrant a challenge. They quickly let him know that he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and he walked away with his shoulders slumped and a dejected look on his face.

Philadelphia basically had nothing working in the third quarter, which is a credit to Minnesota’s defensive excellence this season. Tyrese Maxey was walled off, their role players got shy, and a lot of possessions boiled down to what Embiid could do with 10 or fewer on the shot clock. The answer was “everything” with Embiid dropping a barrage of jumpers and baseline moves on Minnesota to power Philly in the third. He sprinkled in some ridiculous dunks to drive home how badly he was beating these dudes up.

Embiid has faced criticism in recent weeks for his gargantuan numbers coming against teams on the bottom of the NBA totem pole, and I’m not sure he could have made a bigger statement than he did with this performance. Against the league’s No. 1 defense and a multi-time DPOY at center, he turned in another masterclass, cementing his spot at the top of the MVP race with 51 points. Pretty damn good.

— If Joel Embiid was the guy who allowed the Sixers to hang around and take the lead early, it was Tyrese Maxey who took the torch from the big man and ran with it. And though many came in knowing Embiid had a tough matchup with Rudy Gobert, the degree of difficulty was only slightly lower for Maxey. He had to go to battle with the other (read: better) McDaniels brother, with Jaden McDaniels providing a stiff test for No. 0.

It took a little bit for him to get going, certainly, with Maxey coming up with nothing on a few early trips to the painted area. McDaniels’ length and athleticism combined with Gobert’s presence at the rim forced Maxey in some extraordinarily difficult shots, with his spinning layup attempts falling harmlessly off of the rim. But instead of force-feeding those tough shots, he would eventually find his touch around the cup, attacking Gobert with speed and power instead of trying too hard to ignore his length.

Perhaps more importantly, Maxey trusted the power of his outside shot, uncorking stepback jumpers and catch-and-shoot bombs whenever the Wolves thought they could afford him a bit of space on the perimeter. Maxey had it going in the first half, pacing himself to 20 points in a deadheat with the big man. And it looked for a while that the first-half outburst would be the extent of his scoring.

But, and I don’t say this lightly, there was some Curry-esque shit that happened in the second half. Rather than trying to beat the bigger and longer McDaniels straight up, Maxey got to some of his buckets by simply outrunning the bigger guy, forcing him to trail him in repeated handoffs and ball screens as he pinged the ball back and forth with teammates. It’s that trait that sets him apart from Embiid’s other ballhandling partners over the years, and it caused unease for the Wolves throughout the second half.

By keeping them on their heels with his shooting, Maxey was able to get to it as a driver, too, scoring a tough and-one layup at the rim that brought the crowd to their feet in the fourth quarter. His last game against the Wolves was a struggle fest, in part because he didn’t get to play off of Embiid. But this was a statement game for an ascending player, with Maxey finding a way to pick apart a super-difficult matchup.

— Despite their personnel limitations, I thought the Sixers threw an interesting blend of stuff at Anthony Edwards, including a healthy amount of traps and doubles to force the ball out of his hands.

The Bad

— You figure that Tobias Harris will pull out of this recent spiral at some point, but it’s hard to ignore the $40 million problem on their hands at the moment. It’s hard to point to a single thing he is doing well, and while his contract is no longer a long-term concern, it is and was a team-building obstacle. When a guy making this much money is sputtering through games, you’re not going to have a lot of fallback plans. Either Embiid and Maxey have to carry you to a victory, or career role players have to play much better than you have any right to expect.

Harris has long been lauded for having a bunch of different tools in the kit, but none of them are serving him right now. He has generally been a good defender of bigs in matchups like these historically, but Karl-Anthony Towns gave him fits at times in this one, with Harris slapping and reaching instead of just trying to stand his ground. And frankly, the defensive end is where he had a lot more success, or at least moments where he looked like he belonged.

He continues to be a reluctant three-point shooter, which simply can’t happen with the way this team is set up. When Embiid is drawing double teams in the middle of the floor or Maxey is sucking in defenders with drives to the basket, every guy on the perimeter has to be ready and willing to shoot. We are long past the point where a one or two-attempt game is acceptable from Harris. Even guys like Patrick Beverley, who opened the year gunshy, have found their legs as shooters in smaller roles than Harris has.

If Nick Nurse can go to Pat Bev and demand aggression from deep, he damn well should from Harris. Watching him clang midrange jumpers and runners instead of doing what the team needs him to do is killing me.

— Kelly Oubre having a tough time with Anthony Edwards is no big deal in my eyes, honestly, because he’s a special player at shooting guard who gives some of the best defenders in the league fits. I would say, however, that Oubre getting roasted by every single player who he guarded is sort of a problem. The Wolves took turns sending him into the core of the Earth, whether it was Mike Conley putting him on skates or Naz Reid going past him for easy buckets at the rim. There wasn’t a single matchup that I thought he had consistent success in.

He has been pretty valuable as an off-ball guy this year, but add him to the list of guys who aren’t putting out fires as man defenders.

— One negative for Maxey in this game: turnovers. Rudy Gobert preyed on his pocket pass attempts to Embiid in this one, and the aforementioned length they threw at him caused trouble throughout the game.

The Ugly

— Perhaps the biggest news coming out of this game is the status of De’Anthony Melton, who looked like he banged knees with Jaden McDaniels in the first half, forcing him to the locker room with the assistance of multiple Sixers staffers. But it came out shortly after halftime ended that he had a “left thigh contusion” and was ruled out for the rest of the game.

Melton is an important connective piece for this group, so here’s hoping this was just a precautionary measure.

— The officiating in this game was really something. Naz Reid basically football tackles Patrick Beverley at halfcourt and got nothing, only for Embiid and Karl-Anthony Towns to get free throws on marginal contact plays. A ton of late whistles, too. Consistency is valued, fellas.