Joel Embiid's 70-point game puts exclamation point on historic season

January 22 will forever besolidified as one of the best days of basketball in NBAhistory. On the anniversaryof Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game, Joel Embiid scored a Philadelphia76ers franchise-record 70 points en route to a victory over the SanAntonio Spurs.

Finishing with a stat line of 70points, 18 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal and a block, Embiid'sperformance is now the third-highest game score listed on Basketball Reference.As if this wasn't impressive enough, Embiid had just one turnoverand only played 36 minutes (the fewest minutes ever in a 70-pointouting).

This was Embiid’s third 50-pointgame of the season, with his last being against the MinnesotaTimberwolves in December. After his dominant performance againstMinnesota, Embiid spoke to Basketball News about the differentenergy and effort level he’s bringing this season.

“I’m just pushing myself more,understanding that every possession matters," Embiid said. "Itdoesn’t matter, I shouldn’t have to wait until the playoffs… [I’m]just trying my best, offensively and defensively.”

This season, he has risen to anotherworldly level of scoring, having the most efficient 35+point-per-game season ever thus far. As of January 23, Embiid isaveraging 36.1 points in just 34.2 minutes. This level ofproduction is just unheard of. The second-closest player in thescoring race is Luka Doncic, who’s averaging 33.6 points. Whilethis is very impressive, he’s doing so in roughly 37 minutes pergame. Embiid’s stat line per 36.9 minutes (Doncic’s MPG) wouldbe 38.9 points, 12.5rebounds and 6.3 assists on 54/36/89 shootingsplits.

Perhaps the most wild aspect ofEmbiid's incredible start to the season is that he has sat out of11 fourth quarters thus far. This is roughly a third of the gameshe’s played in this season, yet he's still averaging 36.1 pointsper game.

In addition to somehow improvingas a scorer, Embiid has also developed into a very goodplaymaker. In his last matchup with Nikola Jokic, Embiid beathim in the assist battle, while still scoring 41 points. Allaround, Embiid has been the best player in the world this seasonand it isn’t even a question anymore.

Something that’s gone overlookedis that Embiid has only lost six games this season and has a winpercentage of 81.3%, which is higher than that of the BostonCeltics. If Embiid keeps up this level of play (and he hasn't shownany signs of slowing down), this will go down as one of the bestindividual seasons in the modern NBA.