Joel Embiid helps fast-starting 76ers rout Blazers 101-81
ANDY SCHWARTZ, Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Joel Embiid had 28 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks and the fast-starting Philadelphia 76ers handled another Western Conference opponent with relative ease, beating the Portland Trail Blazers, 101-81 on Wednesday night.
Coming off a 21-point victory over Utah on Monday night, the 76ers scored the game’s first 16 points and held a double-digit lead most of the way.
Portland missed its first 13 shots before Shabazz Napier came off the bench and hit a jumper with 5:01 left in the first quarter. The Blazers never got closer than eight. It was the Blazers’ lowest points total of the season, and the fewest that Philadelphia has allowed.
Damian Lillard had 30 points for Portland. He hit four of his six 3-pointers in less than four minutes, but three times the Sixers answered with a 3-pointer of their own.
After Lillard cut Portland’s deficit to nine late in the third, Embiid answered with a basket, block, slam, jumper — and then the exclamation point. In the final seconds of the quarter, Lillard drove to the bucket, but Embiid spiked the ball away from behind volleyball style, and the frenzied crowd at the packed Wells Fargo Center erupted.