Joel Embiid sets franchise record with 70 points in 76ers’ win over Wembanyama, Spurs

Joel Embiid continued his slalom through the current NBA season on Monday night.

The Cameroonian center scored a franchise-record 70 points, the most in the NBA this season, to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to a 133-123 victory over the San Antonio Spurs.

Embiid was 24 of 41 from the field, including 1 of 2 from 3-point range, and made 21 of 23 free throws. Embiid also set a career high with 18 rebounds. He broke the legendary Wilt Chamberlain’s 76ers record of 68 points, set on Dec. 16, 1967, by scoring on a layup with 1:41 to play.

“I was actually mad at myself because I missed a lot of easy shots that I’ve been making all season,” Embiid said.

Chamberlain was playing for the Philadelphia Warriors when he set the NBA record with 100 points.

“Obviously, Wilt accomplished a lot of things,” Embiid said. “To be in the same conversation is pretty cool. It was just a great night. Had it going. They just kept giving me the ball and I just finished it.”

A six-time All-Star and the league’s reigning MVP, Embiid has scored at least 30 points in 21 consecutive games while the 76ers have won six games in a row.

“The only thing I told my teammates was, ‘Please don’t force it,’” he said. “Let’s just play basketball. We were just trying to play the right way.”

French/Congolese Rookie Victor Wembanyama had 33 points and seven rebounds in 29 minutes in the first game between the two. The rebuilding Spurs fell to 5-19 on the road.

“It would have been more fun in a win, of course, but it’s inspiring, especially offensively,” Wembanyama said of playing against Embiid.

Embiid was impressed with Wembanyama.

“He’s great, man,” Embiid said. “He’s got everything, size, skill, got everything. Bright future. He’s already pretty good. Once he develops, he’s going to be a lot of problems for a lot of guys in this league.”

Embiid hopes it’s after he retires.

“Hopefully when I don’t have to guard him and I’m out of the league, hopefully he can break all these records,” he said.

Philadelphia coach Nick Nurse spoke about Embiid’s performance.

“Obviously he can score in so many ways, just his sheer size gets him a lot of stuff around the basket, gets him a lot of free throws,” Nurse said. “The shooting touch is the skill part. The way he moves, the skill he has, the size he is, and he gets motivated like that, anything can happen I guess.”

Giannis Antetokounmpo had the previous high game in the NBA this season with 64 points.