Joel Embiid downplayed the enormity of his historic 53-point performance for the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday, insisting that his teammates simply fed the hot hand.
Embiid reached 50 points for the second time this season, both occurring in the past nine games as the Sixers won 131-113 over the Charlotte Hornets.
The center also joined Allen Iverson and Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in 76ers franchise history to have two 50-point games over a nine-game stretch.
Embiid also joined Chamberlain as the only Sixers in franchise history with at least 30 games of 40 points and 10 rebounds.
"We won," Embiid told reporters. "It's good to do that when you win. It would suck to have those type of scoring nights if you lose.
"I'm just happy it's contributing to winning. Whether I'm scoring a lot, but especially if I'm scoring a lot, at the end of the day, what matters is if it brings us the win."
He added: "We have a saying that you gotta feed the hot hand. My teammates, if I just scored once, it doesn't matter.
"If anybody on the team, if they just score once, you gotta keep feeding them until the defense stops them once or twice or three times. In that situation, I just kept scoring, and they just kept giving me the ball."
Embiid's dominance was underlined by a second-quarter stretch where he scored 15 points in a row. He shot 20-for-32 from the field, making 11-of-11 free-throws with 12 rebounds.
"Every single time, it seems to bring us the win so just gotta keep trying to be efficient and try to play with my teammates," Embiid said.
"Good things happen when you’re worried about the right things and that’s moving the ball and the ball just finds me."
Teammate James Harden, who laid off 16 assists with 19 points, praised the MVP contender.
"He was in attack mode for the entire game," Harden said. "He made scoring look easy tonight, you know what I mean? He was just in attack mode, getting to the basket, his jumper was falling, he had an aggressive night tonight."
Suns reportedly to waive Paul after 3 seasons
Chris Paul's time in the Valley of the Sun is over.
The Phoenix Suns informed Paul on Wednesday that he will be waived, according to Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report.
The 38-year-old future Hall of Famer will become a free agent after spending the last three seasons with the Suns.
With two years left on a four-year, $120million contract, Paul was due to make $30.8million this season but only $15.8million of that was guaranteed.
By clearing cap space, the Suns will now build around Kevin Durant and Devin Booker as they again try to capture the franchise's first championship under new coach Frank Vogel.
Despite being near the end of his career, Paul will still be considered one of this summer's top free agents, as he can still efficiently run an offense and excels at finding open teammates.
In his first season in Phoenix in 2020-21, he helped the Suns reach the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in six games.
With Paul running the point, Phoenix won a franchise-record 64 games in 2021-22, but the season ended at the hands of the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semi-finals.
This season also ended with the Nuggets again eliminating the Suns in the conference semis with Paul missing the final four games of the series after injuring his groin in Game 2.
A 12-time All-Star, Paul finished the 2022-23 season with a career-low 13.9 points per game, but still showed a proficiency at distributing the ball, with an average 8.9 assists to rank fourth in the NBA.
With career averages of 17.9 points, 9.5 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 2.1 steals, he is the only player in NBA history to average at least 15 points, nine assists, four rebounds and two steals.
His 11,501 career assists and 2,544 career steals are both third most in NBA history, trailing only John Stockton and Jason Kidd in both categories.
The fourth overall pick of the 2005 draft, Paul was named Rookie of the Year in 2005-06 and has been selected to the NBA All-Defensive first team seven times. The 18-year veteran has also been an All-NBA first-team selection four times, a second-team selection five years and a third-team selection twice.
Heat rally in fourth quarter to even NBA Finals at 1-1
Gabe Vincent scored 23 points and helped spark a fourth-quarter rally that propelled the Miami Heat to a 111-108 win over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday in Game 2 of the NBA Finals, evening the championship series at 1-1.
The Heat overcame an eight-point deficit to start the fourth quarter to snap the Nuggets' seven-game winning streak and send the series to Miami all tied. Game 3 will take place Wednesday.
Denver also was handed its first loss in 10 home games during this postseason despite another big effort from two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić, who poured in 41 points on 16-of-28 shooting along with 11 rebounds.
Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo each contributed 21 points for the Heat, while Duncan Robinson scored all 10 of his points during a pivotal 15-2 run to open the fourth quarter that sent Miami ahead to stay.
Jokic scored the final six points of the third quarter to give the Nuggets an 83-75 lead that turned out to be short-lived. Robinson had the first eight points of Miami's momentum-shifting surge, and Vincent later added a 3-pointer before hitting two free throws that put the Heat up 90-85 with nine minutes remaining.
Miami held a 107-95 advantage after Caleb Martin's 3-pointer with 3:39 left to play, but the Nuggets responded with a late charge to put the outcome back in doubt.
Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray hit 3-pointers to ignite an 11-2 run Murray capped with another triple that pulled Denver within 109-106 entering the final minute.
After Jokic countered two Butler free throws with a short turnaround jumper with 35.6 seconds left, Butler missed a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession to give the Nuggets a chance to tie.
Murray misfired on a step-back 3-point try with 1.9 seconds left, however, and Martin grabbed the rebound as time expired.
Denver, which led by as many as 15 points in the first half, had been 11-0 this postseason when holding a double-digit lead.
Miami Heat rally late against Denver Nuggets to even NBA finals series
The Miami Heat produced a fourth-quarter comeback to win the second game of the NBA finals 111-108 and even up the seven-match series against the Denver Nuggets.
The Heat trailed by eight heading into the final period, having trailed by 15 earlier in the game in the wake of another massive performance from Nikola Jokic.
Jokic scored 41 points, scoring 16 of 28 shots from the floor including one with 36 seconds remaining which cut the Heat’s lead to three points.
But after Jimmy Butler missed on Miami’s next possession, Jamal Murray was unable to tie the scores with an effort on the buzzer.
The defeat was Denver’s first since May 7 and they had won all 11 play-off games in which they had opened a double-digit lead.
They had trailed 21-10 in the opening quarter before a barrage of three-point scores helped them to a 44-32 advantage which had been trimmed to six points at the break.
And Miami held on through the third quarter before the late surge that takes the series to Miami all square.
Gabe Vincent led the way for Miami with 23 points as Butler and Bam Adebayo each grabbed 21.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
