Best .350 winning percentage team ever!
7-1 in Embiid's last 8 games, including a win over Toronto. The 1 loss was against the Celtics. The Sixers are exceptionally good now that Embiid, a rookie who hadn't played in 2 years, has gotten up to speed. They will only get better once Simmons starts playing.
"Exceptionally good"? Come on, now. That's a bit of an overreaction. Tonight was a good win for them, but it was also at home against Toronto on the second night of a back to back, which they played down to their competition with at that. Otherwise, they've been beating up on scrub teams that are playing terribly at the moment.
In their last 10 games, they are 7-3. They've beaten the Raptors, Bucks and Hornets and they only lost to us by 4 points. That's pretty darn good.
The Hornets are terrible and weren't even a playoff team when they played them, iirc (they were 9th). They just lost their entire five-game road trip, which the 76ers were the fourth game of. They caught them at a time when they were playing their worst ball of the season.
It's a similar situation with the Bucks, who are on a three game losing streak right now. They caught them on the second night of a back to back after losing to Atlanta the night before. And while tonight's win against the Raps was definitely a good win, it also was on the second night of a back to back.
And you have to realize that this is more of the 76ers taking advantage of teams taking them lightly after they've sucked so long more than them suddenly improving for some reason. They've had a favorable schedule lately and have taken advantage of it. And that's good for them and us, because it just helps our Nets pick and them to not get as good of a prospect in this coming draft.
But people are deluding themselves if they think they're just suddenly getting better and this has less to do with the lackluster strength of their schedule of late and how they're catching teams off-guard when they're playing them. They're similar to how we were in 2014-2015. However, the conference isn't the same as it was that year, and they have a tougher schedule the rest of the way that will keep them from coming close to making the playoffs.
I mean... two of the wins that came in this streak were over New York and Toronto... the last two teams to beat the Celtics. So there's that. Also, he barely lost to the Celtics by 4 points despite playing 26 minutes in a game where all 5 of Boston's best players played 30+ (Crowder, Horford, Thomas, Bradley and Smart)
But you're also underselling just how incredible he's been. It's well known by now that his per-minute numbers are ridiculous. He's scored 20+ points in 10 straight games despite only hitting 30 minutes once.
The on-court/off-court splits for Embiid are ridiculous. Since Jan 1st, their defensive rating is 87.9 with him on the court vs 109.5 with him off. Opponents have been shooting 37.5% with him on the court and 49% with him off. At the rim they are shooting 25% with him on the court.
For the entire season the 76ers are +68 with him on the court and -292 with him off. They have a scoring margin of a 56-win team with Embiid on the floor this season. And scoring margin of 11-win team with him off the floor.
And all this despite the fact the guy has missed two straight season with an injury and had basically no expectations coming into this season. If you're a fan of the NBA, you should be paying attention to this guy.
Also, for all the talk about Towns (myself included), it has to be noted that Philly has a better record than them right now despite Ben Simmons not having played a single game. As good as Towns is, he's been struggling defensively and seems to be nowhere near as good as Embiid on that end. Embiid's 76ers also have the same amount of losses as the fragile Anthony Davis and the New Orleans Pelicans. I think you can already make a case Embiid is the best big man in the Eastern Conference and in terms of elite young big man phenoms around the league, if Embiid can keep up this historic per-minute production when his restriction lifts above 28 minutes, we might see him quickly leapfrog over both Towns and Davis.