Philadelphia 76ers: Joel Embiid leads the NBA in clutch points scored

The Philadelphia 76ers need a closer.

When the game slows down and the paint crowds up, the Sixers need a guy who can run the show, execute the offense, and attack the basket with one eye to the wings and the other on the basket.

But what if I were to tell you the Sixers already have the best clutch scorer in the NBA, statistically speaking, at least?

Well, it’s true. When you check out the number, both totals and per game, Joel Embiid rises above all others in terms of clutch buckets scored, which is a head-turning stat that definitely comes as a welcomed surprise.

Joel Embiid is holding up well for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Joel Embiid has appeared in 16 games for the Philadelphia 76ers this season.

In games where he’s actually played, the Sixers have an 11-5 record, including four wins over their last six contests, and have outscored opponents by an average of four points.

And the best part? Embiid is coming up clutch for his team when they’ve needed him most.

In clutch situations – aka, when the score is within five points in the final five minutes of a quarter – Embiid has scored the most points (66), taken the second-most shots (41), and taken the most free throws (25) of any player in the NBA. While these numbers are all obviously impressive, especially since Embiid is routinely double and even triple-teamed in the paint sometimes before he even gets the ball, what makes them even more so is the sheer fact that Arthur’s dad hasn’t played as many minutes as the Association’s other top performers.

You see, Embiid currently ranks 16th league-wide in clutch minutes played, 20 minutes fewer than Jayson Tatum, seven fewer than Seth Curry, and 22 fewer than league-leader Russell Westbrook. For better or worse, Embiid is being used more in clutch situations than basically any other player in the NBA, and he’s largely awarded that confidence in his game with efficient scoring regardless of whether it comes from the field, where he’s making 53.7 percent of his shots, from beyond the arc (55.6 percent), or on his seemingly new signature shot, the spinning fadeaway jumper.

All in all, pretty good stuff. Embiid heard all of the talk about his team needing a Jimmy Butler-type to close out games and flipped his nose at the idea of anyone having the ball in their hands at the end of the game but him.

With that being said, the Sixers can’t exclusively rely on Embiid to bail them out of close games, as 1. he doesn’t play every game, and 2. he can’t solely shoulder that burden on his own.

When you look at the top-10 clutch scorers in the NBA so far, only two, Embiid and Anthony Davis, are traditional post players. The rest, from Chris Paul to Kevin Durant, do their best work playing off of a big man, instead of being the post player looking for a ball to be thrown his way. While Embiid can unquestionably still get his whenever he wants to, he often has to do so further away from the basket than he would like and has to fight through contact to get points on the board.

If Embiid had a player like, say, Ricky Rubio getting him the ball, just imagine how many points he’d have in clutch situations.

Alternatively, what if Doc Rivers committed to running his offense through Embiid and Tyrese Maxey in a pick-and-roll similar to the ones run by the Utah Jazz with Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell? Embiid is a better offensive weapon than Gobert, and while Maxey isn’t quite as offensively advanced as his Western Conference foil, he’s quicker and a more efficient scorer within 10 feet of the basket.

If those two worked together, with Harris, Curry, and Green spacing the court on the outside, it’s hard to imagine many opposing defenses having a reliable answer for the offense.

*sigh* get well soon, Dave Joerger; you might just be the Sixers’ only hope.

If Joel Embiid can continue to lay waste to opposing teams in clutch situations, it will unquestionably make the Philadelphia 76ers a better team. But to truly rise above the rest, string together some wins, and rise up the Eastern Conference once more, the Sixers really need to figure out a few more secondary scoring options at the end of games, as their second and third options, Seth Curry and Tyrese Maxey, have been lapped multiple times over by “The Process” in clutch situations. Ideally, that will change in the not too distant future, as just because Embiid can shoulder the weight doesn’t mean he should have to exclusively do so.