8. Joel baptizes Aron Baynes
Joel Embiid is a freak of nature. He has a combination of size and agility that is hard to find not just in basketball, but in sports in general. Not only can he overpower you in the post and get you into foul trouble before you even know what hit you, but he can also get fancy and pull out a lethal combination of post moves to show you how nimble he can be on his feet.
Plus he can get up and down the court as quick as any big man in the league. His chase-down blocks are a thing of beauty. But his speed especially bodes him and the Sixers well whenever they are running the break. When he gets a full head of steam in transition and has a lane to the basket, *in a very Ludacris voice* get out the way.
So when Joel found himself in this very situation in the first half of Game 3 against Boston, you knew he was going straight to the hole. Following a very pretty pass from Ben, the only thing standing between Joel and a go-ahead throw down was one Aron Baynes.
Baynes holds the dubious distinction of being the most-posterized man in basketball. I think I speak for the majority when I say that I am all for players actually trying on defense, so I give Baynes credit for not backing down when guys are coming at him. But I mean, if I’m being honest, at some point you just have to start making business decisions and step to the side. For dignity, if anything.
So you have the equivalent of a runaway freight train running the break coming at a guy who has had more Kodak moments than anyone on earth.
Adding all that together gives you this:
It’s by far the best dunk of Joel’s career to this point and at least gave us a shining moment in what ended up being a heartbreaking loss. And it also gave Aron Baynes, surprisingly, yet another Kodak moment.