
Three nights earlier, Joel Embiid’s mouth had gone into overdrive after the Sixers beat Brooklyn in OT, at one point stating matter-of-factly that he was the world’s best basketball player.īut Embiid was grounded in this one, settling for 17 points on 5-of-18 shooting, with 11 rebounds, four assists, four turnovers and one block.
#Giannis antetokounmpo vs joel embiid stats archive
You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.MILWAUKEE - After the Milwaukee Bucks throttled the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday at Fiserv Forum, Giannis Antetokounmpo let the self-proclaimed “Best Player in the World” off the hook.Īfter, but not during. Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. “Steph does that.”īottom line: If Embiid is indeed The Best Player in the World, maybe Antetokounmpo is simply extraterrestrial. “Who does that?” he said, thinking for a moment. It easily could have been a statement, given the mileage Philadelphia got out of beating Milwaukee on Christmas at Wells Fargo Center (Antetokounmpo shot 8-for-27 with Embiid often defending him) and what Brown referred to as the “growing competitive history with those two.”Īntetokounmpo demurred on the shimmy stuff. By the start of the fourth, it was 93-73.Īntetokounmpo twice did a little shimmy after scoring that seemed to mock some of Embiid’s dance moves in other games. “The death knock,” Sixers coach Brett Brown called it, after his team’s fairly solid first half.Īntetokounmpo scored the Bucks’ first 11 points of the half, then assisted on four of Milwaukee’s next six field goals.īy the time Embiid checked back in, his team trailed by 15. Embiid picked up his third and fourth fouls in the first 46 seconds of the third quarter and went to the bench for the next five-plus minutes. The All-Star center’s worst stretch coincided with Antetokounmpo’s best. “I’ve got to be that guy,” Embiid said, after not being that guy.


“But at the end of the day, you’ve got to go on the court and – if you feel that way – you’ve got to show it.” “Who am I to tell him he’s not the best player in the world? Who are we to tell him he’s not the best player in the world? Everybody should feel that way. “Every NBA player should feel like he’s the best player,” Antetokounmpo said. But the Greek Freak went high rather than low. So this would have been a perfect time for Antetokounmpo to gloat. The Bucks are now 26-3 at home the Sixers, an alarming 9-20 on the road. He worked his magic with former Bucks legend Oscar Robertson sitting near the home bench, and walked off at plus-27 in the blowout victory. He’s a down-to-earth guy.”Īntetokounmpo, finished with 31 points on 12-of-17 shooting, with 17 rebounds, eight assists, four turnovers and one block – in just 29 minutes.

Obviously, when I go on the court, I’m gonna go as hard as I can. “You want me to say something but it’s going to go viral and he’s going to see it, and then it’s going to be a battle. “I know that you’re trying to do your job,” Antetokounmpo said, smiling. Antetokounmpo, metaphorically speaking, settled for a layup. Once the thrashing was complete, a reminder of Embiid’s big talk was lobbed up to the league’s reigning MVP afterward like a fat pass, ready to be flushed. He sat with two quick fouls after halftime when the Sixers could least afford it – sidekick Ben Simmons checked out early in the first quarter with renewed back pain – and the Best Player in the World wound up minus-18 for the game.

MILWAUKEE - After the Milwaukee Bucks throttled the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday at Fiserv Forum, Giannis Antetokounmpo let the self-proclaimed “Best Player in the World” off the hook.Īfter, but not during.
