Sixers' Joel Embiid dominates Bulls for career-high 50 points

The Philadelphia 76ers were shorthanded once again Friday night as they entered a matchup with the Chicago Bulls missing star Ben Simmons and key reserve Shake Milton. The important thing is they still have Joel Embiid.

The All-Star center poured in a career-high 50 points with 17 rebounds, while also dishing out five assists to lead the Sixers to a 112-105 home win over the Bulls. Embiid was terrific all night long to make sure Philadelphia did not lose.

Tobias Harris was solid once again going for 22 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists, and Danny Green made some clutch plays as he finished with 13 points and five assists. Dwight Howard also contributed eight points and 10 rebounds off the bench.

Here are three observations from the Sixers' win:

Embiid going early

Embiid was primed for a big game because he’s been dominant, but he got to work early in this one due to being pushed by Bulls big man Wendell Carter Jr. Chicago went to Carter early and often and he went right at Embiid from the start, scoring Chicago’s first eight points and seemed to bother Philadelphia’s star.

Embiid took all of his frustration out on Carter as he went right at him, scoring 14 points in the first quarter. He made Carter look small and used his force to bully his way to the rim. On one play, Embiid posted Carter up at the 3-point line and then backed him down to the basket for an and-1. One another play, Embiid went coast-to-coast, executed a euro step in the paint and converted an and-1. He had 25 points and eight rebounds at the half. He then made every play down the stretch to lift the Sixers to the win.

"It just shows how the game has slowed down for me," Embiid said. "The only difference from this year and last year, it’s not so much about coaching, it’s more about me being willing to just dominate every single minute that I’m on the floor."

All-around Harris game

Harris took another step toward trying to cement his All-Star résumé. Without Simmons, the Sixers needed somebody to replace the little things he brings to the table. Harris was solid on the defensive end of the floor, was terrific on the glass and did a solid job of getting his teammates the ball as he continued to take on more of a point-forward role. His scoring barrage in the third quarter was important when the Sixers needed somebody to score outside of Embiid.

Bench unit struggles

The bench continues to struggle a bit as the Bulls feasted on them in this one. Howard provided good minutes, but Furkan Korkmaz remains on a cold streak. He entered Friday's game shooting just 23.3% from deep over his previous eight games and struggled Friday as well, missing the only triple he attempted and committing two turnovers. Korkmaz has to get going again for Philadelphia’s bench to succeed because he is still not the best defender.

As for Tyrese Maxey, it’s was good to see him continue to get to the rim. There was a stretch of games where he seemed too passive and pulled up for long 2s rather than getting to the rim aggressively. The problem was he did not finish very well. He probably could have drawn more fouls from officials, but he was aggressive again. He will eventually have to finish at the basket more efficiently.