Joel Embiid posts triple-double, Tyrese Maxey drops 30, Sixers crush flopping Lakers

How smart of the Sixers to take all the three-pointers and make every single one of them. Why hadn’t they been doing this the whole time?

The Sixers knocked off the L.A. Lakers 138-94 Monday thanks to the whole team catching fire from deep. They finished the night 22 of 46 (48%) from deep.

Joel Embiid, who once again was able to take the fourth quarter off, had his first triple-double of the season with 30 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists. Tyrese Maxey led the three-point onslaught, shooting 5-of-12 from deep and putting up 31 points along with eight assists and no turnovers.

Here are some thoughts at the buzzer.

First Quarter

• Davis looked to have a certain pep in his step from the start of this one, scoring eight of the Lakers first 13 points, and drawing two fouls on Embiid in the process. Any flopping discourse about Davis or Embiid is just nauseating. They are two bigs who are very good scorers and thus very hard to guard.
• Maxey has done almost all of his scoring this season in the second, third and fourth quarters, so it was fairly surprising to see how often he was looking for his shot early tonight. Not only did he have 10 points himself in the first, but he led the team in shot attempts when he first went to the bench.

• Jaden Springer being sick and Danuel House, Jr. dealing with a quad injury makes it really hard to complain about Marcus Morris, Sr. getting minutes.
• The Sixers threw a ton of different looks at the the Lakers once Davis had gotten off to a hot start. Their most successful look was having Robert Covington front Davis with Embiid roaming behind. The Lakers were held to four points over the last six minutes of the quarter, allowing the Sixers to get out to a 13-point lead.

Second Quarter

• Philly hoisted up 26 threes in the first half, which is definitely on their higher end for three-point attempts in a half this season. While they can’t count on Patrick Beverly going 3-of-4 every night, it’s definitely a trend that should continue. It felt like they were able to control the pace of the game with the type of shots they were taking.

• Davis hardly shared the floor with Paul Reed. They were only on the floor at the same time for about a minute-and-a-half of game time. Davis did get one possession against Reed and got locked up and committed and travel.
• Everything was going the Sixers’ way in the first half, as they got another 11-point quarter from Marcus Morris. He was a perfect 3-of-3 for a team that shot 50% from deep in the half which put them into cruise control. The Lakers finished the half on a 14-4 run and were still down 15 at the break.

Third Quarter

• It’s still early, but the Sixers have to led the league in games where they have to play with the shot clock on the ground because the ones on top of the baskets are broken.
• This was another great passing game for Embiid, he reached double-digit assists not long into the second half. The dribble-handoff with Maxey was consistently successful, but Embiid was surgical in finding his other teammates from the free throw line.

• De’Anthony Melton was everywhere in the third after being surprisingly absent from the three-point barrage in the first half. He got himself on the board by knocking down three triples and had a deflection which caused a steal as well. He also nearly had a very impressive block on James but caught just too much of his wrist to get called for the foul.
• It felt like Embiid was also crashing the glass harder than usual tonight, and that showed up in his offensive rebounding totals. He had pulled down four through three quarters tonight. That’s two straight games with at least four for him, he came into tonight averaging only 2.3 offensive rebounds a game this season. Philly held an 18-point lead heading into the fourth.

Fourth Quarter

• Maxey’s night might have started to become a bit overshadowed by Embiid but he was in complete command to start the fourth. He scored or assisted on 12 of Philly’s first 15 points of the quarter, good enough to have the Lakers call timeout and empty the end of their bench.

• It was an “everybody hits” type of night as both Paul Reed and Mo Bamba also got on the board with a three-ball in garbage time. They finished the night shooting 47.8% from three on 46 attempts. Now the next step is keeping a similar volume even when the entire team isn’t hot.
• The Sixers will once again head out for a quick two-game road trip. They’ll kick things off Wednesday night against the New Orleans Pelicans at 8 p.m. ET.