PHILADELPHIA _ Joel Embiid is back to being his dominant self and the 76ers remain unblemished at home.
The All-Star center finished with game highs of 33 points and 16 rebounds Wednesday night in the Sixers' 97-91 victory over the Sacramento Kings at the Wells Fargo Center. This came after Embiid was held scoreless in Monday's loss to the Raptors in Toronto.
Wednesday's victory improved the Sixers to 12-6 overall and 8-0 at home.
Rookie guard Matisse Thybulle finished with a career-high 15 points to with four steals and two blocks in a reserve role. Meanwhile Ben Simmons had 10 points to go with a season-high 14 rebounds.
The Sixers finished the game without Josh Richardson and James Ennis.
The shooting guard sat out the second half with right hamstring tightness. This was Richardson's third game back after missing two games (San Antonio Spurs on Friday and New York Knicks on Nov. 20) with right hip flexor tightness. He had nine points on 4-for-6 shooting to go with three assists in 17 minutes.
Ennis (zero points, one block) left the game in fourth quarter after rolling his right ankle.
But a lot of the focus was on Embiid, who missed all 11 field goals and went 0-for-3 from the foul line against the Raptors. He had a little less than 48 hours to think about not scoring a point against the Raptors.
So as expected, the two-time All-Star was fired up. And his teammates made it a point to feed him the ball on the Sixers' first offensive possession.
After Simmons missed a 10-foot hook shot, Embiid grabbed the offensive rebound 12 seconds into the game. Eleven seconds later, he delivered an emphatic dunk on former teammate Richaun Holmes.
Then Embiid scored on a 19-foot jumper on the Sixers' next possession to put his team up, 4-0, 45 seconds into the game. He missed a three-pointer on the next possession, but the tone was already set.
He finished the first quarter with six points on 3-for-8 shooting to go with eight rebounds in nine minutes. Embiid had secured his 10th double-double of the season with a layup at the 8:43 mark of the half. That gave him 10 points to go with 10 rebounds.
The Sixers were rolling early on, building an 11-point cushion with 5:26 left in the half. However, the Kings battled back and took a 44-43 advantage on Dewayne Dedman's three-pointer with 40.8 seconds before intermission.
After the lead seesawed, Raul Neto's layup right before the halftime buzzer gave the Sixers a 47-48 advantage.
Furkan Korkmaz started in place of Richardson after intermission. However, the team got a big lift from Thybulle in the third quarter. He came in for Korkmaz with the Sixers up 58-52. With him on the floor, the Sixers got a little breathing room, opening up a 15-point cushion on his pair of foul shots with 10:52 remaining.
Thybulled scored eight points on 3-for-3 shooting _ including two three-pointers _ to go with two steals and a block while playing the final 8:17 of the third. Then after his pair of fourth-quarter foul shots, he added a breakaway dunk off a steal. He followed that up with three-pointer to put the Sixers up 90-73 with 7:53 remaining.
This wasn't a good homecoming for Holmes, who finished with 3 points on 1-for-4 shooting.
The Sixers selected him with 37th overall pick (second round) of the 2015 NBA draft out of Bowling Green.
He averaged 7.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 16.9 minutes in 156 games with 20 starts in three seasons with the Sixers. On July 20, 2018, Holmes was traded to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for $1 million.
Then he signed a free agent deal with the Kings back on July 16.
Sacramento inserted him into the starting lineup on Oct. 10 against the Charlotte Hornets. He's provided a boost.
The fifth-year veteran averaged 11.4 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.56 blocks whole shooting 66.1% heading into Wednesday's game. As a result, he's just the fourth player in NBA history to average at least 11.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.5 blocks while shooting 65.0% from the field.
"There are things that you see on tape," Kings coach Luke Walton said, "but you just don't really know guys until you have them. His professionalism, his ability to pass is much better than I would had thought."
On Wednesday, Buddy Hield paced the Kings (7-10) with 22 points, but made just 3 of 12 three-pointers.
