Jazz big man Jarred Vanderbilt reacts to Sixers star Joel Embiid’s career night
PHILADELPHIA–The Philadelphia 76ers had a tough task ahead of them on Sunday night when they played host to the Utah Jazz who entered the contest as the No. 1 seed in the West. They are off to a great start to the season and are playing really solid basketball so they offered a challenge for the Sixers.
The Jazz built a 14-point lead, mostly when Joel Embiid was on the bench, and when the big fella returned, he turned the tide. The Sixers trimmed that deficit to just six at halftime and they then used a steady dose of Embiid to knock off the Jazz 105-98 at home and even their record at 7-7.
Embiid finished with a career-high 59 points on 19-for-28 shooting with 11 rebounds and eight assists while tying his career-high with seven blocks. He also shot 20-for-24 from the free-throw line as the Jazz had no answer for him.
“When anybody’s in a zone like that, it’s tough to stop,” said Utah big man Jarred Vanderbilt. “He had a lot of favorable calls, too, so he shot a lot of free throws and helped get him in a rhythm. So he’s seeing the ball go through the hoop a lot of times. At that point, it’s tough when somebody sees the ball go through that many times. They’re shooting it in an ocean at that point.”
By the time the Jazz started to adjust and throw waves of defenders at Embiid to try and throw him off, it was too late. The big fella was in a groove and there was no chance of them slowing him down in this one.
“I feel like we tried to make some adjustments late, but at that point, it was kinda a little too late,” added Vanderbilt. “He was already in that zone and it was tough.”
What made Embiid’s night even more impressive was him scoring 26 points in the fourth quarter on 7-for-8 shooting. The Sixers scored 27 points as a team in the final quarter with the other point coming from Danuel House Jr.
The Sixers will now have four days before their next contest when they host the Milwaukee Bucks. That will allow Embiid to rest his body for another tough matchup.
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Multiple Sixers in awe of Joel Embiid after career night in win over Jazz
