Sixers-Spurs takeaways: Key matchups bring out best in Joel Embiid; no extra pressure for Nick Nurse

Joel Embiid has a knack to dominating marquee matchups.

The 76ers center and Minnesota Timberwolves post player Karl-Anthony Towns made history Monday night. And after all the excitement, Sixers coach Nick Nurse doesn’t feel any added pressure to win an NBA title.

Those three things stood out in the Sixers’ 133-123 victory over the San Antonio Spurs at the Wells Fargo Center.

Embiid finished with a franchise-record 70 points along with 18 rebounds and five assists. He shot 24-for-41 while making 21 of 23 free throws against the Spurs (8-35).

While 70 points is a bit steep, no one should be surprised that he dominated the head-to-head matchup with San Antonio’s 7-foot-4 rookie Victor Wembanyama.

Embiid may not admit it, but he gets up for individual matchups against elite opponents.

He had 41 points and 10 rebounds while outplaying two-time MVP Nikola Jokic in a 126-121 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Jan. 16. The 7-foot-2 center also had 51 points and 12 rebounds vs. All-Star frontcourt tandem Towns and Rudy Gobert in a 127-113 victory over the Timberwolves on Dec. 20.

But Embiid denied that he was inspired by playing against Wembanyama.

“Just like I mentioned the other night against Denver, It’s not like I woke up one day and was like I got to try to go out and dominate and have the best game of my career,” he said. “I try to do it every single night on both ends of the floor. That’s where the mindset is, just trying to go out and dominate.

“So I’m really just pushing myself and challenging myself every single night. What else can I do? What else can I add to my game? Can I try something new to see if it works or if it doesn’t? I’m just really challenging myself.”

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Perhaps, but as strange as it seems for a guy averaging 36.1 points, Embiid’s play has been extraordinary against elite players.

“Yeah, I mean I think that he is competitive, you guys know him well enough that you’ve heard some of the stories about his non-basketball competitiveness, too,” Nurse said of Embiid. “He is a competitive guy and I think that he certainly gets some motivation against certain guys or big nights or whatever.

“But I also keep going back almost two or three weeks ago when he said, ‘My mindset is to go out there and dominate each night.’ That’s what I like to hear that he’s in a mindset where he’s coming out there night after night to do what he’s capable of doing and doing it in an impressive fashion.”

While Embiid had 70 points, Towns finished with 62 points and eight rebounds in a 128-125 loss to the Charlotte Hornets.

They became the fourth pair of players to score at least 60 points on the same day and the first since David Thompson (73) and George Gervin (63) in 1978.

“I was actually surprised he didn’t beat me,” Embiid said of Towns. “I heard he had like [44] at halftime. So I was hoping that he would beat me, but he didn’t. But it’s great, especially because he’s a big, too.

“He did it in a different way. I had one three and he had 10 of them. So that’s amazing as a big to be able to make 10 threes. I dream I can do that, but I probably can’t. Did it a different way, but it’s good to see bigs just dominate.”

» READ MORE: Sixers grades: Joel Embiid makes history in first matchup with Victor Wembanyama

Embiid passed Carmelo Anthony (62) for the most points scored with one or less turnover since the 1977-78 season, when it became an official statistic.

He also set a franchise record with his fourth career game with at least 20 free throws, breaking a tie he had with Hall of Famer Dolph Schayes.

Meanwhile, Towns became the first player in league history with 10 three-pointers, 10 two-point field goals and 10 free throws made in a game.

Towns, the first overall pick in the 2015 draft, also became the first No. 1 pick with multiple 60-point games.

Embiid is in the midst of a historic individual season. The Sixers (29-13) are in their third winning streak of at least six games. And they’re a half-game behind the second-place Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference standings.

So does Nurse, in his first season as Sixers coach, feel any added pressure to advance the team deep in the postseason? The Sixers haven’t advanced beyond the second round since 2001.

“Listen, I go into every single season thinking that,” said Nurse, who led the Toronto Raptors to the 2019 NBA title. ‘We’ve got to figure out a way to get through this thing and get to the top. I just want to make sure we’re playing good basketball, making the right plays, continuing to get better. I think we are getting a little better; I think we’re starting to read things a little bit better. But there’s still a long way to go. I want to clean up things — and we’re going to see a lot more things now, which is great. I just want us to continue to get better, make the right reads.”

Nurse was elated that Sixers had 28 assists to four turnovers against the Spurs. He feels continuing to play that way will give the Sixers a good chance to win games.

“That’s the kind of stuff I’m going to keep focusing on,” he said.