The Philadelphia 76ers have a new franchise record for points in a game after their win over the San Antonio Spurs. Joel Embiid unleashed an absolute masterclass that gave the Sixers their sixth consecutive win. The final score read 133-123 after an incredible night of hoops at the Wells Fargo Center.

Embiid brought the house down with 70 points, 18 rebounds and five assists in 24-41 shooting. Victor Wembanyama played a great game, too, ending with 33 points, seven rebounds, two assists and two blocks on 10-19 shooting. Although guys like Devin Vassell (22 points, nine assists, four rebounds) and Tyrese Maxey (18 points, eight assists, four rebounds) were very solid, the game was a story of two extraordinarily tall men, mainly the one who posted an all-time legendary performance.

The Sixers could feel Embiid had a special performance brewing and spammed looks for him, letting him rack up a usage rate of 52.8 percent. Philly wasn’t very sharp on defense, particularly in transition. But the level Embiid played at negated all of their woes. Let’s jump into the film of a masterful game.

A Sixer scores 70

Embiid's metamorphosis into a scoring diety is all but complete. Barring any developments of becoming a 40-percent shooting from deep, it's hard to imagine he can unlock another level than the incomprehensible stratosphere he's already at, one that no other high-volume scorer has ever reached. The weapon of unforetold power he wields to smite defenses is none other than the pull-up jumper. Every one of his looks there has the feel of a layup, generating genuine surprise when it doesn’t result in two points for the 76ers.

Wemby may be long enough to really make it hard for Embiid to shoot over him but he, like many other defenders before him, had to make a choice. If he kept his hand raised up high to contest Embiid's jumper, it opened up room for Embiid to drive into him. If he stayed low to avoid giving him his chest, it made it harder to get all the way up.

Even with Wemby bending over so far that his back was parallel to the ground at times, his wingspan allowed him to get a hand up by the ball. Embiid could cross the sky-high barrier but only in the nick of time. That window was all he needed.

Nine of Embiid's 24 field goals came on jumpers in or around the jump-ball circle. He also hit a fadeaway over Wemby from just outside the paint on the right side. With a left-handed hang dribble or a jab step with his right foot, Embiid opened up space to free himself for a clean enough look. Wemby and his teammates didn’t necessarily want to concede these looks but it was the poison they had the best chance against.

What was Wemby so afraid of by exposing his chest to Embiid?  This.

Wemby stays low but Embiid gets lower, earning extra space to bulldoze his way right to the rim. When you’re disadvantaged in stature by 70 pounds, drawing up extra resistance through strength in the lower body is critical. The rest of the Spurs had no answer for the opposing behemoth's might, either.

In addition to raining jumpers, Embiid also sealed his defender from the basket for easy scores. Zach Collins may not have the size to bang with Embiid down low but here, he plays him at an angle that makes the entry pass to him very tough. Embiid flips the seal to the other side to give another passer a better angle. Nico Batum whips a sharp bounce pass to the big man for the layup. Embiid further bullied Collins by draining his only three-pointer of the night over him to end the third quarter.

Furthermore, the 76ers center had free reign to collect every missed shot from Philly that came his way when Wemby was out of the picture. Eight of his nine offensive boards came with Wemby in the vicinity. The lone one that did was when Wemby got a hand on one of his jumpers that immediately landed back in his hands.

Later in the game, the Spurs tried to use Wemby as a roamer and put stocky forward Jeremy Sochan on Embiid. But all that did was give him even more open jumpers. Twice in a row in the fourth quarter, taking just quick beats to get into a rhythm, Embiid rose up and drained a jumper.

Embiid put the finishing touch with a fast-break layup that he initiated with a smart defensive play. He notices Collins' slip/cut across the paint, tips the pass away, gets the ball right back and plows ahead through Keldon Johnson, the thrower of the errant pass, to put himself alone in the 76ers record books. It took 75 years of Syracuse Nationals/76ers basketball for a player to score 70 in a game.

The 76ers have seen a lot of legendary talent throughout their history. But through the years of Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Charles Barkley, Allen Iverson and more, no one had climbed to 70 percent of the century mark in the point column until January 22, 2024. It was a gradual, long process that couldn’t have ended with a more deserving player.

The rookie phenom still shines

Embiid's performance was humbling for Wembanyama, who had to endure the downpour of points with an umbrella and jacket that were worn all the way down by the end of the night. Nonetheless, he never backed down and gave Philly a lot to worry about throughout the game.

Wemby didn’t waste any time showing the Philadelphia crowd what he could do. Kelly Oubre Jr. doesn’t meet him high enough after he essentially gets a dribble handoff, allowing him to step into a triple. Nothing but net.

Alright, well, he probably won’t do that again, right? As long as a defender meets him at the three-point line head-on instead of slightly below it from a side angle, he won’t pull it…

Welp.

Nico Batum started the game guarding Wemby but in the chaos of transition, he calls for someone else to take him so that he can manage Julian Champagnie, a former Sixer who would have put Maxey in a one-on-two situation if left unattended. Tobias Harris does a good job of hustling over and contesting the shot. But it doesn’t matter.

In the eyes of 76ers head coach Nick Nurse, that ability to shoot isn’t even the thing about Wemby's game that stands out the most. He said before the contest that his off-ball movement and ability to stop on a dime and change direction really impress him. “He'll come off screens with the pace of a wing player and move himself all the way across the floor to the other side of the lane with some pace,” he said. “His stop-start for someone of his size has impressed me, too.” Philly saw plenty of it.

Here, the Spurs get the ball into Vassell's hands and then have Wemby come up to screen after a ghosted screen from Tre Jones. In the midst of his stride, he slams on the brakes and reverses course. Vassell tosses a lob that falls just in front of the rim but is made to look easy by the extremely tall man. Embiid being on the opposite side of Wemby and outside of the paint at the start of the pass means that the one guy who could feasibly break this play up is too far away to do it.

That’s a clean route and a great leap to haul in the pass. Wemby showed wide-receiver-like skills on that play and on a backdoor cut where he left Embiid in the dust and drew a foul at the start of the third quarter. He also demonstrated a tactic in football called “late hands” in which a pass catcher will put their hands up for the pass as late as possible so as not to tip off the defender of when it's coming.

On this play, Wemby doesn’t raise his hands to indicate he's receiving a pass from Tre Jones until the ball is nearly at his head. Although he jumps ever so slightly when the pass is made, he comes down with his hands at his side. The quickness with which he puts the ball up after the catch only makes Embiid even less likely to break up the play.

Defensively, Wembanyama did what he reasonably could have. He made Embiid's shots tough and forced him into contested middies. Giving up so many pounds left him with no better alternative than to try to force misses away from the hoop.

The Spurs couldn’t let Wemby wreck stuff away from the ball, where his mobility and massive limbs really shine, because they needed him to stick with Embiid. But he did show that he's already a feared rim protector by reaching over his teammate to block a K.J. Martin layup. He also showed it when he coaxed Maxey into taking a floater from roughly 10 feet out because any closer shot would have run the risk of being swatted back.

Wembanama's second-highest-scoring game was vastly overshadowed by Embiid more than doubling his output. But no one who watched the game came away wanting more out of him. He's already shown he can hang with superstars like Kevin Durant and Giannis Antetokounmpo. He'll have more chances to prove he can go blow-for-blow with Embiid over the years.