Subscribe
Follow Us
In his second campaign in the league, Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid has claimed that his big season was only further strengthened by his play at Staples Center.
Embiid put up two of his most productive outings of his brief career against both teams that reside in Los Angeles. According to Noah Levick of NBC Sports, he recently stated that his struggles on the court had been alleviated by partying in Los Angeles that he believes led to his pair of big outings at Staples Center.
Article Continues Below“All my close friends live in L.A., so before that, I wasn’t really doing anything, I was frustrated because I wasn’t in basketball shape and I wasn’t having fun on the court,” Embiid said. “So I won’t lie, I decided to go out, have fun a little bit. And that just kind of gave me the energy back, and the next game against the Clippers, I had more than 30 points [32], and then the following game I had more than 40 [46], so I think it’s just about having fun and making sure I can control what I can.”
Prior to those two games, he had put up a dud performance in his eyes vs. Golden State Warriors where he scored 12 points on 4-of-11 shooting with seven rebounds and seven turnovers. Whatever he believes he did certainly worked as he put on a show in Los Angeles scoring 32 points with 16 rebounds against the Clippers, which he followed up with a 46 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists, and seven blocks against the Lakers.
In fact, it was a career night against the latter as it was the most points by a 76ers player since Allen Iverson scored 45 against the Miami Heat back in 2006. He was also the first NBA player to record 40 or more points, seven or more assists, and seven or more blocks in a single game since Hall of Famer Julius Erving back in 1982.
Beyond his stellar play on the court, he has shown to have quite an entertaining personality both on the court and over social media. Simply put, Embiid has become one of the most captivating players that the league has had for quite some time.
