Philadelphia 76ers Player of the Week: Joel Embiid is rebounding monster

Philadelphia 76ers star center Joel Embiid shows his elite rebounding skills in a week where the franchise went undefeated.

The Philadelphia 76ers went undefeated this past week and while there were different reasons as to why the club won those games, one thing was a consistent aspect that was apart of each of the Sixers wins. Joel Embiid‘s dominance on the backboards was unbelievable in each of the team’s victories and has earned him the player of the week award.

In the buzzer beating win against the Brooklyn Nets, Joel Embiid wasn’t the hero that hit the game winner, but he was clearly a force the Net’s couldn’t stop. He dominated with 32 points, 12 rebounds, four assists, two blocks, four turnovers and four fouls, while converting 11-19 field goal attempts, 0-3 3-point attempts and 10-12 free throw attempts.

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It’s was disappointing that Embiid didn’t stop Net’s center Jarrett Allen from having 17 points and 10 rebounds. However, Embiid clearly took advantage of the young defensive center on the other end of the floor. Embiid’s dominant performance was one of the main reasons why Jimmy Butler had the chance to hit the game winner in the first place.

Embiid led the way for the Sixers in the team’s blowout victory against the New York Knicks. He finished the game with 26 points, 14 rebounds, seven assists, one steal, one block, one turnover and a foul, while shooting 10-21 from the floor, 0-3 from downtown and 6-8 free throw attempts.

It’s not surprising that Embiid wrecked havoc against the Knicks with both of their centers ill-equipped to handle the Sixers franchise big man. Enes Kanter has always been known as a defensive liability and rookie Mitchell Robinson is a raw prospect that found himself in foul trouble against Philly’s franchise centerpiece.

In the 76ers second blowout victory of the week against the Washington Wizards, Embiid’s point total was low, but he was able to collect a massive amount of rebounds in a short period of time. He ended the contest with 16 points, 15 rebounds and three blocks, while making 5-12 shots from the field, 1-3 shots from deep and 5-10 shots from the charity stripe.

Without Dwight Howard, the Wizards didn’t even have a starting level center to defend Embiid. Thomas Bryant is a promising but still developing player, while Ian Mahinmi and Jason Smith are well past their primes and don’t have the physical tools to even slow down Embiid.

Honorable mention

Ben Simmons may have the best overall week behind Embiid, but the honorable mention goes to Jimmy Butler. As previously mentioned, Butler hit the game winner for the Sixers versus the Nets. In arguably his best game as a part of the 76ers, he had 34 points and 12 rebounds to go along with the game winner.

Butler didn’t rack up big numbers throughout the rest of the week, impart due to the two blowout victories the Sixers enjoyed. For the week he averaged 17.3 points, 7.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 3.0 steals, 0.3 blocks, 1.7 fouls and 1.3 turnovers.

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The Philadelphia 76ers center was a menace on the backboards, but his overall dominance is still evident based off his stats for the week. He averaged 24.7 points, 13.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 0.3 steals, 2.0 blocks, 1.7 fouls and 1.7 turnovers. There’s a good chance that Embiid can continue his dominance on the boards going into next week as well.