NBA scores 2016: Joel Embiid’s growth is still right on schedule

After the early season fascination died down, don’t worry: Embiid still looks incredible.

Dec 9, 2016, 1:00 PM UTC

NBA: Philadelphia 76ers at New Orleans Pelicans

Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

Joel Embiid’s block on Anthony Davis writes the lead to this story for me.

Davis thoroughly outplayed Embiid the rest of the game, just like he has thoroughly outplayed him all season. That’s a surprise to no one, after all. But on this play, Embiid met Davis at the rim, threw his shot back at him and made himself look like the transcendent big man better than nearly anyone else in the league. That’s what everyone in Philadelphia hopes Embiid can be.

The 76ers won their first road game of the season on Thursday, moving out of last place (thanks, Mavericks) to move to 5-18 on the season. Embiid was an obvious factor despite a rough 5-of-15 shooting night, and his line speaks for itself: 14 points, seven rebounds, two assists, four blocks and three steals.

Embiid has only played in every other game dating back to Nov. 23 due to the 76ers’ careful rest regiment set out for him, although his minutes are slowly climbing upwards when he does step on the court. The original Embiid hype has washed over, and the infrequent exposure to him on the court has left us latching other stories around the NBA. But don’t fear: the development of Joel Embiid is moving along just fine.

His stats are great: 18 points on 45-percent shooting from the floor and 44 from three, along with 2.5 blocks per game. But the most impressive stat is a simple one: the 76ers are better than their opponents when Embiid is on the floor.

Four of the 76ers’ five wins have come with Embiid playing, and he’s a plus-12 on the year. None of his teammates have positive plus-minuses outside of him — in fact, no one is even close. Every Sixer who has played regular minutes is at least minus-50.

Embiid still looks clueless on offense sometimes, but he’s so tall and so physical that he’s scoring anyway. His defensive process is making him a force so early on, with a defensive rating of 97.9. Watch him for a game, and there’s half a dozen things that he could be doing better — and he’s still Philadelphia’s best player by a moonshot.

So of course Philadelphia fans want to see him reach Davis’ level, for that one block to turn into some sort of metaphor. Can you blame them?

Raptors-Timberwolves is what happens when a good team plays a bad one

With about six minutes left in TNT’s early game, Minnesota and Toronto was a three-point game. The lead had bounced back and forth between the two teams a little bit, and the Timberwolves’ infamous third quarter problems this season hadn’t shown up all. In fact, they’d even won the frame by a point.

But what happened in the game’s final six-plus minutes is what happens when a good team plays a bad one, and when a veteran squad grinds out a win against a group of youngsters. Toronto clamped down, hit a second gear and ended up with a 124-110 final score. The Timberwolves, try as they might, just couldn’t keep up.

The 6-16 Timberwolves keep running into this problem: they’re just so damn young. They haven’t found themselves in a lot of close games this season, compared to the average, but this was a classic example of what will happen when they do. Minnesota gave up a wide-open corner threes, and a few offensive rebounds. Then, just for good measure, DeMar DeRozan jammed this home.