– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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WASHINGTON — If the minds of some of his teammates, Joel Embiid’s dominant scoring performance on Wednesday night fell short of what his play should have merited. Oh, well. Another 50 burger, and a clutch shot to seal another 76ers victory will have to suffice.
Returning to the lineup after a two-game absence due to illness, Embiid scored a season-high 50 points, including a fadeaway jumper with 20 seconds remaining to seal a 131-126 victory for the 76ers over the Washington Wizards inside Capital One Arena. Embiid also had 13 rebounds and seven assists, marking the fourth time in the last four seasons that Embiid has had a 50-10-5 stat line, more than the rest of the league combined. (Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic and Jayson Tatum have done so once during the same time span.)
“Sometimes your team needs you to be a playmaker, sometimes they need you to score and I felt like it was one of those nights where I had to be aggressive and get it going,” Embiid said. “But they made passes, they made the right plays every single time and I just finished them.”
It was the sixth 50-point game in Embiid’s career, with his career high being 59 in a game against the Utah Jazz last season, on November 13, 2022.
That number should have been eclipsed this evening, at last that was the feeling in the 76ers locker room afterwards.
“He should have had 60,” joked Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey, who had 26 points and seven assists.
“It was a quiet 50,” teammate De’Anthony Melton added. “He was just going out there effortlessly shooting the ball and scoring.”
Jordan Poole led the Wizards with 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting. Fellow backcourt mate Tyus Jones had 20 points and eight assists for Washington, losers of three straight and 12 of its last 13 games.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Wednesday evening’s event, with all photos taken by DC-area photographer Yusuf Abdullah. After clicking on the first photo to enlarge the picture, make sure to press the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the rest of the pictures. There are 20 pictures in total.
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