INDIANAPOLIS — Is Joel Embiid fighting an uphill battle in the MVP race?
Do voters for the NBA’s most prestigious individual award hold the 76ers star to a steeper evaluation curve? Or would it be just another tough break if last season’s runner-up missed out this year as well?
Many consider Embiid the league’s most dominant player this season as he’s put up eye-popping numbers from the start. As a result, he has been the frontrunner for the award until recently.
Embiid is the primary reason the Sixers (48-30) are in fourth place in Eastern Conference with four games remaining. The center is second in the league in scoring (30.2), sixth in rebounding (11.5), and ninth in blocks (1.4). The 28-year-old has 11 games with at least 40 points and 10 rebounds, which leads the league.
Embiid has posted some of the most memorable performances of all time this season to lead the Sixers to victory.
Back on Feb. 17, Embiid had 42 points, 14 rebounds and five assists to lead the undermanned Sixers to a 123-120 win over the reigning champions Milwaukee Bucks on the road. On that night, he became the first Sixers player with a 40-point triple-double since Wilt Chamberlain in 1968.
There was also the 108-103 road victory over the Boston Celtics on Dec. 20. Embiid scored the Sixers’ final nine points, including a huge turnaround jumper, and then stole Marcus Smart’s inbound pass with 2.5 seconds remaining to clinch the win. He finished with a game-high 41 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, four blocks and two steals. Seventeen of his points came in final quarter.
And there was Sunday’s 44-point, 17-rebound and five-block performance to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 112-108, on the road. Twelve of Embiid’s points came in the fourth quarter.
With all that said, what does Embiid think about his odds of becoming this season’s most valuable player?
“So, as I say, it’s out of my control,” he said. “If it happens, great. If it doesn’t, I don’t know what I have to do at this point.
“At this point, I’ll feel like they hate me. And it’s cool. That’s always been kind of like my career in Philly. I feel like in Philly, it always felt like you always had to do more. I don’t know why, but that’s always the feeling that I always had.”
An informal ESPN poll released March 28 revealed that Denver center Nokia Jokić may have supplanted Embiid as the frontrunner for the award.
ESPN asked 100 media members to rank their top MVP candidates. Jokić, who won the award last season, had 62 first-place votes and a total of 850 points. Embiid was second with 29 first-place votes and 719 total points, while the Bucks’ two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo had nine first-place votes and 593 total points.
Jokić has been on fire recently, averaging 34.8 points, 16.2 rebounds, and 8.4 assists in the last five games. The Nuggets won four of those matchups.
Embiid has put up solid numbers all season. However, things quieted down a bit for Embiid while the Sixers rode a recent three-game skid to the Phoenix Suns (March 27), the Milwaukee Bucks (March 29) and Detroit Pistons (Thursday).
The five-time All-Star was asked if his body of work should hold more weight than another player’s recent dominance.
“Yeah for sure,” Embiid said. “Obviously, you mentioned recency bias. You look at obviously winning matters a lot. And that’s what I always go back to. So losing the three games that we lost, probably according to a lot of people, probably hurt me a lot. But like you said, if someone has a big game, that’s what people remember.
“Or, for example, you look at the Milwaukee game or whatever. I think people also tend to forget that, you know, we also went to Milwaukee [on Feb. 17]. We won that game without a bunch of key pieces.”
Embiid could point to the 2019-20 season when describing why he might feel disrespected and disliked by some voters. That marked the third of five consecutive seasons as an All-Star starter.
Embiid had his share of injuries in a season that concluded in the bubble with the Sixers being swept in the first round by the Boston Celtics.
Embiid scored 41, 29, 27 and 23 points in the Sixers’ first four games in the bubble. However, he scored two points in the next game before suffering a game-ending twisted left ankle six minutes into regulation. The injury also sidelined him in the following game before he finished with five and 14 points in the Sixers’ final two regular season games.
Despite his hot start, Embiid was left off the NBA All-Bubble first- and second-team. He was also left off the All-NBA teams and All-Defensive squads that season after being voted to each of them each the previous two seasons. In the past, injuries serves as the excuse for voters who passed on Embiid.
Embiid has answered that question. He’s been in the best shape of his career this season and played in a career-high 65 games and counting.
“The standard for guys in Philly or for me is different than the standard for everyone else,” Embiid said. “Whether you have good games and you lose, that standard is not the same, and it’s cool. I like the challenge. So it’s on me to go out there and try to step my game up and win games.”
