Joel Embiid started the night 1-of-5 shooting and it looked like it might not be his night. Washington raced out to an 8-2 lead against Philadelphia.
Then Embiid took over.
For the rest of the night he shot 16-of-20 on his way to 48 points and 11 rebounds — and he never set foot on the court in the fourth quarter of the blowout win for the 76ers, 146-128.
Embiid is putting up MVP numbers again averaging 32.5 points, 11 rebounds and 6.2 assists a game so far this season.
One game after coach Nick Nurse called him out for not being aggressive early Tyrese Maxey was and went on to score 22 points with a career-high 11 assists for Philadelphia.
Kyle Kuzma scored 28 for the Wizards, who lived up to their billing of having the worst defense in the NBA (120.6 defensive rating).
That’s five straight wins for Philadelphia, which gets a measuring stick game on Wednesday against the Celtics.