Instant observations: Joel Embiid leads Sixers in dismantling of Pistons

Joel Embiid tied Wilt Chamberlain for the most consecutive 30-10 games in Sixers franchise history on Wednesday night, spearheading a 129-111 win over the Detroit Pistons that was never in doubt.

Here’s what I saw.

The Good

— You certainly can’t accuse Joel Embiid of taking nights off against the shoddy opponents they’ve been up against recently. With a soft patch in the schedule to take advantage of, the big man has been absolutely destroying everyone in front of him, launching yet another MVP campaign in front of our eyes.

(Yes, the MVP debates are beginning. Run and hide if you must, but they are here.)

With the Pistons down their “best” option to defend Embiid (Jalen Duren), he opened the game against a much smaller man in Isaiah Stewart. Embiid took absolutely no time getting to work against Stewart, who picked up two fouls in the first quarter and made his way to the bench in favor of James Wiseman.

I’m not sure it really would have mattered who the Pistons threw at Embiid in this game. His focus was on point from the first minute of this game, with Embiid throwing his weight around as both a post-up player and a rebounder. The word I would use to describe Embiid this season is purposeful — when he’s rolling, you can see the clear goal in his mind on each possession, the floor bending to his will as he moves a defender aside, directs a cutter toward the rim, or looks to hit an open shooter on the perimeter. Nick Nurse has empowered him to do just about everything on offense, and he has embraced that challenge. The last couple of years have shown a clear move toward mastery for Embiid, that hallowed ground where special touch and physical talent merge with the instincts to pursue true greatness.

Within the team’s structure, you can see the different versions of Embiid poking through at any given time. Embiid spent most of Doc Rivers’ tenure dominating from the elbows, and the Sixers made great use of that talent on Wednesday night, playing through the big man there to avoid double teams. The blend of hyper-efficiency and foul drawing has been jaw-dropping at times this season and was again on Monday night. At halftime, Embiid was 10/15 from the field and 9/9 from the charity stripe, 30 points materializing in what felt like an instant. Detroit’s best chance to stop him was simply praying that he would take a heat check three, and even those had a great chance to go down.

I get that we have seen him throw aside crappy teams like the Pistons before, but it still brings great joy to watch him dismantle these bozos and to see the Sixers bring a professional approach against a team of this caliber. When Embiid comes out and takes an opponent like this seriously, it requires his teammates to come out and match his level. Eight consecutive times now, he has put up 30 points and 10 boards, and he managed it this time inside of a single half. Don’t take it for granted.

And once again, the Sixers destroyed a team they should. They wasted no time, buying the starters rest in the fourth quarter. Have to love that.

— Tobias Harris has been known to turn it up against some of his old teams — not the Bucks, unfortunately — and the Pistons have probably received the worst of it over the years. It feels like he has an extra gear every time they go to Detroit, and while a poor opponent might have something to do with that, there’s no reason to complain here.

There’s never a better indicator of Harris’ groove than his three-point volume, which plummets whenever he gets off to a tough start. Harris was fortunate to see one go down early, and that appeared to make a material difference for the rest of the night, as Harris confidently stepped into catch-and-shoot jumpers all night. He even hit a ridiculous three falling away from the basket in the second half, with a dwindling shot clock forcing him to get anything up that he could. A moment like that makes it even more frustrating that he refuses to let it fly at times because the required skill is obviously there.

In any case, Harris added more than just the outside shooting, with some big-boy moments in the mid-post against Pistons defenders ill-equipped to guard him. When Harris has run the floor hard, good things tend to happen, whether it’s Harris scoring on the fly or drawing a favorable crossmatch that he can punish in the first 10 seconds of the shot clock.

— Speaking of playing with pace, the Sixers have had a noticeable pep in their step over the last week or two, delivering on a Nick Nurse request to get even faster. And that doesn’t mean throwing the ball to Tyrese Maxey and asking him to just run really fast by himself, it’s a group effort to make outlet passes, run the floor, and score before a defense can get set.

Perhaps my favorite play of the game came in the second half when Patrick Beverley ended up with the ball after a Pistons miss. Embiid, who ran the floor hard basically all night, demanded the ball and got a long, beautiful entry pass from Beverley, who threw his pass early instead of giving Detroit a chance to offer help or converge on the big man. When the ball reached Embiid’s hands, the hard work was all done, and he deposited perhaps his easiest two points of the night at the rim.

When the big guy busts his butt to get down the floor, hit that man with a pass! Basketball 101. Thank you to Pat Bev for understanding that.

— Kelly Oubre has been somewhat up and down (understandably so) since returning to the lineup. The first half of this game was a showcase of what they missed from him during his absence, with Oubre blending tough shotmaking with sudden bursts of athleticism for a nice scoring punch off of the bench.

The one thing I have come to appreciate about Oubre during his brief time in Philadelphia is that even if he does something ill-advised, he’s going to do it decisively. Maybe it leads to a tightly-contested jumper every so often, but Oubre’s confidence has put him in a lot of favorable spots on the floor this season. He had a dunk attempt that drew a foul in the first half that would have been one of the highlights of the year if he made it, but even without the poster dunk, he made a positive impact on the offense by taking a swing pass and exploding toward the rim with no second thought.

Sprinkle in a bit of touch on midrange jumpers, and Oubre has had plenty to offer the Sixers as a bench leader.

— De’Anthony Melton had his usual share of belly-laugh moments finishing around the basket, but I thought his fingerprints were all over this one. Some great transition defense, deflections on shots and passes, he’s just such an excellent connector who’s willing to do whatever it takes in order to help the team.

— I have given Marcus Morris a lot of grief, but I appreciate that the effort has been there for him as of late. Made shots are the biggest (and perhaps only) reason he will be on the floor, but if he attacks the glass and keeps his head up defensively, he may well add some value when it’s all said and done.

And I’ll give him this, too — Morris made a great read on a pass to Paul Reed from the middle of a zone in the first half, only for Reed to smoke the layup. Can’t fault the vet for the younger guy blowing the scoring opportunity.

The Bad

— Even when Tyrese Maxey has ended up in the negative portion of this column, it has typically been because he’s below the high bar he has set. Not the case this time out. Maxey was just flat-out bad for most of the night, unable to find the range no matter where he tried to let it go from.

There’s not a whole lot to analyze here, if I’m being honest, and even Maxey had a chuckle at himself in the second half. After he rebounded his own missed three and got a left-handed runner to drop, Maxey looked up at the rim (and the camera above the rim) and started applauding, trying to show some appreciation for a make that must have felt like a gift from a higher power on a tough night.

This will be a burn-the-tape game for him. He was fortunate to have it against this horrific opponent.

The Ugly

— Brother, the Detroit Pistons absolutely stink.

— It has been very funny to watch Joel Embiid realize mid-game that he’s probably not going to play in the fourth quarter against a bad team, because he immediately pivots into full gunner mode. I get a kick out of it every time.