The best way to exact revenge on people mocking you for missing a dunk is to come right back down the court and slam one home. Joel Embiid’s monster dunk with 1:15 left in the second quarter proved once again why he should win NBA MVP.
Embiid had been serenaded with boos from the road crowd in Washington after missing a dunk just a few plays earlier. Then he bullied his way into the lane again, circumnavigating Wizards big men Daniel Gafford and Rui Hachimura, to extend the Sixers’ lead to 12 points in Game 3. He finished with a playoff career-high 36 points in 28 minutes during a 132-103 victory.
“I missed the dunk and they let me hear about it,” Embiid said. “And I mentioned in the past, I love it when they boo and they started booing, they started chanting at me because I missed the dunk. So I had another opportunity and I actually made a dunk so that’s when I went over to them and I wanted to hear more boos. Because it gets me going, I like it.”
After the statement dunk, the 7-footer strolled the baseline and trolled Wizards fans as they rained down more boos on him. Embiid cupped his ears and asked for more while loving every minute of it. The Sixers hold a commanding 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series against the Wizards.
“I guess the alternative they could use is they could actually cheer for me, I don’t know,” Embiid said. “But I just love playing on the road. I love playing up to the boos or them talking trash, I love it.”
Y’all hear something?
There were quite a few MVP chants for Embiid in Washington, too. They were noticeably loud every time the big man fought through a double team in the paint. Which was often. They were also very audible when he got to the free-throw line (5-of-7). Sixers fans traveled to D.C. to show their support and brought the thunder with them.
“It felt like this was a Philly crowd,” Embiid said. “It felt like we had more fans, it’s always been that way, our fans have always shown up there, they’ve always been louder on the road, especially here in D.C. So tonight it felt the same.”
Smart business decision to stay out of his way.
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Sixers Striving for Even Higher Level
The Sixers shot an other-worldly 58.6% from the field and 51.5% from beyond the arc. The basket must have looked like the Atlantic Ocean to Embiid, along with Danny Green, Seth Curry, Tobias Harris. Those four players combined to shoot 13-of-22 (59%). After the game, Embiid expressed a desire to get to an even higher level of precision. He wants to see the Sixers shoot 100% from the field.
“We shot 58-percent. We shot 51-percent from three,” Embiid said. “So if you ask me, ‘yes, there is a level way higher where you could shoot 100-percent from the floor, 100-percent from three and make all your free throws.’
“So we can always get better. This is not it. We have a few turnovers that we need to correct. We got to make our free throws. We got to rebound the ball better. There’s always a higher level that we can get to.”
Doc Rivers said he thought Ben Simmons’ drives and kick-outs to 3-point shooters early discouraged the Wizards from double teaming Joel Embiid.
“It was the perfect storm and they played off of each other.”
Philadelphia gets a day off before returning to the scene of the crime for Game 4. The Sixers will be looking to close the series out on Monday night (May 31) at 7 p.m. If they can punch their tickets to the second round, it would be one small step toward their ultimate goal of winning a championship.
“There’s nothing to be happy about. We got to close out the series,” Embiid said. “We got to get one more win. And then worry about the rest later. That’s our goal, we got to take one game at a time, there’s no reason to be happy where we are. We just want to take it step by step, make sure we don’t skip any so we accomplish our goal.”
Joel Embiid hits the trailing 3 and shushes the crowd
Embiid Mastering Double, Triple Teams
The Wizards kept throwing bodies at Embiid for a third straight game. Alex Len. Robin Lopez. Daniel Gafford. Anthony Gill. Rui Hachimura. It didn’t matter. Embiid constantly fought through double and triple teams and found open shooters on the perimeter. And when they did play single coverage, the future MVP dominated them at the rack.
“It feels like the game has slowed down. I’m not forcing anything. I’m letting it come to me,” Embiid said. “You see the first game, they double [me], I made the right passes. And then the second game, they came aggressively, their whole game plan was to try and get me taken out of the game and I made the right passes. As long as we score, as long as the team scores, I’m happy.”
Embiid also made the Wizards pay from deep where he went 3-of-4. He’s been testing out a lethal new step back, quickly fading back and pulling the trigger off a nifty stutter step. It’s something he and his trainer Drew Hanlen have been working on.
Joel Embiid step-back $.
“We always talk about ways I can fight through the double team and that’s one way to go about it,” Embiid said of the step back. “There is so much more that I could do, and so much more that I have, so many more moves that I can use but I just haven’t because I got to get comfortable with it. If I’m doubled and I want to get a shot off, that’s one move I can use.”
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Sixers’ Joel Embiid Dunks on Wizards Fans: ‘This Was a Philly Crowd’