Joel Embiid is back. After 3 LONG months without the reigning MVP, Embiid is set to make his return this week. Woj reported early Monday morning that the Sixers expected him back at some point this week.
Boy do the Sixers need him. They were the 3 seed in the Eastern Conference when he injured his meniscus. Now they are the 8 seed. If the season ended today, they would be in the Play-In Tournament. With him, they had the 2nd best record in the league, 26-8. Without him, they are 14-27, the 8th-worst record in the league.
No Joel Embiid has meant teams can key in on Tyrese Maxey. Maxey has done his best, but he alone is just not enough, and the guys behind him haven’t all carried their weight. Tobias Harris in particular has failed to live up to the moment, and Buddy Hield has struggled to adapt to his new team.
Looking at how well Embiid played when healthy, the struggles make sense. Embiid averaged over a point per minute. Wilt Chamberlain is the only player in NBA history to do that over a full season. 35.3 points per game, despite averaging 34 minutes per game. He dropped 70 on Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs. That type of production is hard to replace.
In just 34 games, he had 9 40-point games. Many of them despite barely playing in the 4th quarter because the Sixers got out to such a massive lead. He was having a truly special season, that was derailed by the unfortunate injury.
But with him finally making his return, let’s relive some of his greatness from earlier in the season. From dropping 48 on the Wizard in early November to his 70-point masterpiece in late January. We kept track of all 9 of his 40-point games, so that we can remember how great he was playing before the injury.
Here is every 40-point game Joel Embiid had this season before he got injured:
40 against the Bulls on 12/18
The very next game, Embiid did it again, scoring 40 in 37 minutes. But this time it was in a loss. Maxey scored 29 in the game, but the rest of the team combined managed just 35 combined points. The Sixers had just 38 combined FGs in that game, and Embiid either scored or assisted on 21 of them. He also had 14 rebounds. It was not a great night for the Sixers, who lost 108-104. But it was still a very good game for Embiid.
