1 spot in the latest edition of Kia Race to the MVP Ladder. On the strength of a Denver four-game winning streak snapped by New Orleans on Thursday, Jokic reclaims the No. While it’s only one missed game, Embiid’s decision Monday might further muddy an MVP picture that doesn’t appear any closer to crystalizing with just six games remaining on both Philadelphia and Denver’s regular-season schedule. I’m just focused on trying to win a championship.” To go out there and say that I’m scared after what I did the last time is kind of stupid. The last matchup we won, and I had whatever I had. But there’s a bigger goal in sight, and that’s to make sure we’re healthy for the playoffs. “Not playing against him was a huge bummer. He’s a great player, amazing player, back-to-back MVP. It’s not really a matchup about me and Nikola. If one game is gonna hurt anybody’s chances, I guess everybody should be out of it. “I don’t care,” he said when asked whether Monday’s move hurt his MVP candidacy. But he’s also missed 14 contests in 2022-23.īill Walton (1977-78) is the only MVP winner to sit out of that many outings. Before sitting out the loss at Denver, Embiid had played in 13 consecutive games, leading the Sixers to nine victories, including an eight-game winning streak over the course of two weeks from early to mid-March. So, Embiid missed on a shot at redemption in Ball Arena on Monday while passing on a prime opportunity to bolster an already strong MVP case. 8, 2019), Jokic drilled the go-ahead dagger with 1.2 seconds left to lead the Nuggets to a 100-97 win. In fact, the last time Embiid played a game in Denver (Nov. Jokic clashes, two took place at Denver’s Ball Arena, with each team going 1-1. Dating back to 2016, Embiid is 5-2 against Jokic and the Nuggets, outscoring his counterpart in four of those games and outrebounding him in five other matchups. There’s no doubting that, and the career head-to-head matchup history between the big men backs that assertion. You’re judged for the entire season, your team’s record and how you perform. You’re not judged for one game that I know of. “We did the right thing here, so I don’t think that’s fair. “I think Joel’s body of work speaks for itself,” Rivers said. That’s why Philadelphia coach Doc Rivers found himself defending the decision to rest Embiid, while fielding questions about how that might’ve adversely affected his MVP candidacy. See, in this hotly contested MVP race, where voters continually seek tiebreakers to separate the candidates - fair or not - perception matters. Yet Embiid’s absence in Denver dominated the MVP conversation. Three days prior to knocking off the Sixers, Jokic reeled off 31 points and 11 dimes in a win over Giannis Antetokounmpo and the visiting Milwaukee Bucks. That strong showing transpired two months and three days ago, a span seemingly equating to a lifetime passing by when gauging a tight race that could still flip like the Western Conference standings often do over the course of a few nights. He was electing to rest on the 47-point, 18-rebound performance he churned out in a January triumph over Jokic and Co. Understandably, Embiid eschewed individual glory to prioritize health for the Sixers’ looming postseason run. Recency bias might conjure a different set of recollections in this instance, not just for NBA fans, but also the on-the-fence Kia MVP voters, who hoped to catch one final regular-season showdown between the top two candidates in an MVP race poised to go down as one of the NBA’s closest ever. “I think he’s gonna be remembered as one of the most dominant players in the league.” “He’s a great player,” Jokic said of his MVP-candidate counterpart. The warning delivered in this space last week touched on over-analysis of snapshots from pending matchups featuring Nikola Jokic against two of the top three in the Kia Race to the MVP Ladder.īut Joel Embiid nixed trekking that road on Monday by missing Philadelphia’s 116-111 loss at Denver due to right calf tightness. With the race coming down the final stretch, you can catch a nightly update on the top five candidates in our Kia MVP Tracker. Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid could be part of the closest Kia MVP race since 1989-90.
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