Daily MVP Film Breakdown: Embiid Schools Ayton
Joel Embiid dominated on the second night of a back to back, scoring 42 points and 18 boards in a win over the Suns.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNgN0VBg-OM
Embiid faced off against Deandre Ayton, the rookie top pick that many analysts compared to him. Before the season, Embiid was not shy about saying Ayton had a long way to go.
“When you talk about ‘He looks like Joel Embiid,’ I play on both sides of the court,”Embiid said. “I think I’m a good offensive player, good defensive player, I do it on both ends of the floor. I watched him play and he’s got a lot of work to do, but he’s got a lot of potential. He’s going to be really good.”
Sick sequence from Embiid
✅ Easy dunk off a DHO
✅ Gets back and 💥 Book off the backboard
✅ Runs the break and euro steps into free throws pic.twitter.com/N5e2izNFxV— Tom Petrini (@RealTomPetrini) January 3, 2019
That’s something you have to respect about Joel Embiid, he will always tell you exactly what’s on his mind. Although, he hasn’t smack talked an opponent on Instagram since early November. He let his play do the talking against Ayton.
This helps pad those rebounding numbers a bit pic.twitter.com/OwSgrcCa4x
— Tom Petrini (@RealTomPetrini) January 3, 2019
Embiid faces up, throws a nice little jab step and fake, and powers past the rookie Ayton. pic.twitter.com/yiDvVyB5KJ
— Tom Petrini (@RealTomPetrini) January 3, 2019
Embiid alluded to Ayton’s limitations as a defender, and exposed some of them by forcing the rookie to guard him in space, and beating him down the floor for easy layups.
I can’t imagine this is what the Suns were hoping for defensively pic.twitter.com/mCnUQmA6x0
— Tom Petrini (@RealTomPetrini) January 3, 2019
Rebound, run the floor, straight up. pic.twitter.com/swPI1hlbMC
— Tom Petrini (@RealTomPetrini) January 3, 2019
Embiid also got the benefit of the doubt over Ayton on some foul calls. He’s seven feet tall and 250 pounds of muscle, and very often the only way to stop him from putting the ball in the hole is by wrapping him up or whacking his arm.
Embiid draws a bunch of fouls. The defense doesn’t really have a choice a lot of the time. pic.twitter.com/mGFXdH25Wm
— Tom Petrini (@RealTomPetrini) January 3, 2019
Embiid is so explosive around the rim, he either gets a dunk or forces you to foul. pic.twitter.com/LgfEAeijzC
— Tom Petrini (@RealTomPetrini) January 3, 2019
This one is super questionable, and Ayton goes up to the ref visibly perplexed about what he did wrong.
Is this a foul? I don’t see it. pic.twitter.com/RziKCdFuB2
— Tom Petrini (@RealTomPetrini) January 3, 2019
Plenty of things make Joel Embiid a special big man, and his ability to shoot the ball effectively is a major one. He’s 30% from three this year, which is pretty good for a guy that big. He also uses crisp post moves to get jumpers off near the basket.
Even if Embiid doesn’t like doing it, he has the range to hit threes. pic.twitter.com/mc0J4rtOhU
— Tom Petrini (@RealTomPetrini) January 3, 2019
Just a beautiful, perfect turnaround pic.twitter.com/Any8AvXCty
— Tom Petrini (@RealTomPetrini) January 3, 2019
We know that Embiid doesn’t particularly like shooting three pointers, because he told us that straight up. He can do it, and he has to on a team with a dearth of long-range shooting. Still, he looks much more at home driving the ball and annihilating the rim.
Embiid freely admits that he doesn’t like shooting three’s.
He seems to prefer to drive, euro step, and rip the rim down.pic.twitter.com/NVFy2j3LsT— Tom Petrini (@RealTomPetrini) January 3, 2019
I’m laughing so hard at this.
Holmes did a great job knocking the ball away, he just got truck sticked on his butt into another defender 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/0xjUZrUL8H— Tom Petrini (@RealTomPetrini) January 3, 2019
Embiid scored 30 of his 42 points in the first half, but he never took his foot off the gas. If his legs were tired after 28 and 19 in 35 minutes the night before, it did not show.
This is impressive effort from Embiid late in the second game of a back to back pic.twitter.com/oqQl9228tq
— Tom Petrini (@RealTomPetrini) January 3, 2019
This one just about sealed up the win pic.twitter.com/1TVdXTOu5z
— Tom Petrini (@RealTomPetrini) January 3, 2019
The Process is absolutely unstoppable on some nights, and that was the case on Thursday. He silently backed up his statement from earlier in the year, showing that Ayton does indeed have a long way to go before getting to Embiid’s level.