Joel Embiid’s 59-point game is historically unreal

The Philadelphia 76ers – a team that once felt preordained for a deep postseason run – have had an uneven start to their 2022-23 season. A combination of injuries and poor offensive execution left the team under .500 through 13 games.

However, things may be turning around for Philly after an impressive win over the surprising Utah Jazz that evened their record to a clean 7-7. Their victory was powered, in large part, by a herculean performance from the player who has been at the center of many of these criticisms (ha, get it), Joel Embiid.

Embiid, like the 76ers as a whole, came into the season with a great deal of expectations. After being the runner-up in last year’s MVP race, many expected Embiid to clinch the title for himself this year.

Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, his MVP push hasn’t gotten off the ground in the manner many would have expected. But Sunday’s performance may be Embiid’s way of announcing that his campaign is in full force. And boy, did he put himself on the map.

In a hair less than 37 minutes of action, Embiid mounted a statline of 59 points, eleven rebounds, eight assists, seven blocks, and one steal. He achieved those numbers while shooting 67.9% from the floor (28 attempts) and 83.3% from the free throw line (24 attempts), amassing a true shooting percentage of 76.5%.

He was one of two 76ers to score in double figures and the only one to surpass the 20-point mark.

Embiid’s masterpiece against Utah wasn’t just the best performance of the early season, but maybe one of the best regular season performances of all-time.

By using John Hollinger’s Game Score metric, we can get an idea of how well players perform on a single-game basis. According to that measurement, Embiid’s performance on Sunday constitutes the seventh-highest regular season Game Score output in NBA history.

Even more interesting, notice the names that are ahead of him. Of the five players ahead of Embiid, only one of them (Karl Malone) is categorized by Basketball Reference as a Power Forward or Center (aka a “big man”).

Looking even further down the all-time list in this statistic, you see that Embiid owns two of the ten best regular season performances by a “big man” in league history.

Will Embiid use this iconic performance to spring his MVP crusade into high gear? That’s to be decided. But one thing is for certain, last night, we witnessed one of the greatest individual performances in league history.