On the 18 year anniversary of the late great Kobe Bryant scoring 81 points, the second most points in NBA history, the stars of the league came to play last night. Joel Embiid dropped 70 points on 58% shooting, Karl-Anthony Towns hit 10 threes and scored 62 points in a loss to the Hornets, Kevin Durant had 43 6 and 8 and hit the game winner against the Bulls. Tatum, Wemby, Giannis, and Luka and Sam Merrill all played unreal as well. Let’s get into the historic night in the NBA.
I was very excited to watch Victor Wembanyama’s first game against Joel Embiid. Wemby did not disappoint against Giannis and seems to take it to the next level when playing against the leagues best. However, no one on this planet can stop Joel Embiid in the regular season. In the first quarter of the game, the Sixers had a clear game plan of get the ball to their big man. Embiid dropped 24 points and grabbed 6 rebounds in the first 12 minutes of the game. It seemed he had to show Victor who is the head honcho of scoring big man in this league as Wemby score 10 points in the first 5 minutes of the game. Wemby is must see TV, the way he scores is unlike anybody in NBA history. He can dunk almost anything inside the free throw line. If we are going to see a player score 80 points in their career my money would be on Wemby.
The way Joel scores is insanely easy right now. Hes not settling for threes, he’s automatic from midrange, and has the best post game in the NBA. I know everyone likes to joke about Embiid and he chokes in the playoffs and is a free throw merchant but just like his former teammate James Harden was during his MVP campaign, Embiid is having one of the best seasons in NBA history. It didn’t matter who was guarding Embiid he was feasting. Embiid had 25 points in the third quarter, to give him 59 points in 31 minutes of gametime. Embiid came back into the game and scored 11 points to give him 70 and be one of the 9 players in NBA history to get to that mark. No one in NBA history has had 70, 15 and 5 besides Joel now. I really hope Embiid stays healthy in order to win his second MVP in a row.
Karl-Anthony Towns must’ve saw what Embiid was doing and tried to match that. KAT in the first half dropped 44 points and was 8-9 from three. KAT is the best shooting big man of all time and reminded the NBA last night that he is a superstar. KAT added 24 more points in the third quarter to have 58 points going into the fourth. With a 15 point lead, the Twolves should’ve cruised to an easy victory. However, the young core of the Hornets, led by #2 overall pick Brandon Miller fought back. Brandon Miller had one of his best games of his young career dropping 27 points on 11/13 shooting. KAT ended with 62 points and scored only 4 points in the fourth shooting 2/10 from the field. The highlight for me in this game is Leaky Black came in the game with four minutes left in the game. The North Carolina alum, dropped 7 points and iced the game with clutch free throws. It was a historic performance from Hornets play-by-play announcer Eric Collins who exclaimed “I LOVE LEAKY” after he iced the game for the Hornets. The Twolves completely stopped their gameplay and just tried to feed Towns down the stretch. This blown lead disgusted head coach Chris Finch, who absolutely ripped his team after the game saying they disrespected the game.
The other stars in the league went crazy. Kevin Durant did his best Marcus Paige impression and hit a crazy double clutch game winner to beat the Bulls by 2 points. Ever since KD said he should be in GOAT conversations, he has dropped 40 points in back to back games. Tatum dropped 39 and 11 to beat the Mavericks in Dallas. Luka Doncic and Giannis both had 30 point triple doubles that no one is really talking about since it both happens so much and is overshadowed by the scoring performances last night. Sam Merrill dropped 26 points for the Cavilers who have won 8 games in a row. In college news, RJ Davis dropped a career high 36 points as the Tar Heels dominated Wake Forest to bring their ACC record to 7-0. The Heels look like the best team in the country right now.
This morning, Shams dropped a bomb that the Miami Heat have traded Kyle Lowry and a 2027 first round pick to the Hornets for Terry Rozier. Scary Terry has been great this year averaging 23 points and 6.6 assists per game. An upgrade at Point Guard makes this Heat team really scary. After making the Finals last year, they replaced Strus and Vincent with Rozier and Jaime Jaquez. Not that anyone would ever want to play Miami in the playoffs, they have a legitimate shot to compete in the East now. Rozier is a perfect addition to this squad, I really like this trade for them. The Hornets will go absolute rebuild mode and will have the most cap in the NBA this offseason to finally build around LaMelo Ball.
JakesTakes 
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