Joel Embiid's 2022 Game 3 Dagger vs. Toronto: A Fantasy Flashback
Embiid dropped 33 and 13 with a near-buzzer-beater to steal Game 3 in Toronto. Four years later, he's our C2 in NBA rankings.
C2 upside is real, but health is the whole story on draft day.
- 33 pts, 13 reb on 12-of-20 FG in Game 3, 2022
- Just 5 first-half points before an 18-point 3rd quarter
- 76ers won 51 games in 2021-22, 2nd in the East
- Our #11 overall, C2 for 2026-27
- 26.9 pts, 44.5 FPTS/G in 38 games (2025-26)
Rewind to April 2022: Joel Embiid poured in 33 points and 13 rebounds on 12-of-20 shooting to steal Game 3 in Toronto, capping a comeback with a shot that wasn't quite a buzzer-beater but felt like one. Philly took a 3-0 series lead on a Raptors team that had won 51 games to the Sixers' second-best-in-the-East mark that season. It's one of the signature moments of Embiid's postseason résumé.
What makes the box score wild is the split. Embiid managed just five points in the first half, attempted only five shots, and coughed up four turnovers while the Sixers slept through a 10-point halftime deficit. Then he detonated for 18 points in the third quarter alone, going 6-of-9 and playing all 12 minutes, before finishing the job in overtime.
Why This One Sticks
This was the second time in a five-part retrospective that an Embiid playoff gem came against Nick Nurse, the first being Game 3 versus these same Raptors in 2019. The 2022 version carried extra weight because Toronto had bounced Philly in heartbreaking fashion three years earlier. Sticking the dagger in the same building, against the same tormentors, is the kind of thing fans hang onto — even if the Sixers, in typical fashion, made it interesting by dropping the next two before closing in six.
The larger context is that this run didn't erase the choke-artist label. Philly got whitewashed in the 2020 bubble and imploded against Atlanta in 2021, and nothing in the 2022 postseason beyond this shot registers as a franchise-defining memory. But a comeback from double digits, on the road, ending a rival's window — that counts for something in the highlight reel.
The Fantasy Read in 2026
For your drafts right now, Embiid grades out as our #11 overall player and the #2 center in the 2026-27 rankings. That's built on last season's 26.9 points, 7.7 rebounds and 3.9 assists across 38 games (2025-26), good for 44.5 fantasy points per game — and his final five outings ran 5.1 points above his season average, a nice note heading into camp.
The verdict is HOLD, with a giant asterisk on games played. Thirty-eight appearances is the ceiling and the concern in one number. Draft him for the C2 production, but do it knowing you'll need center depth and load-management patience. When Embiid is on the floor, he's a first-round talent. Getting him there for 65-plus games is the bet you're actually making.
