PHILADELPHIA — If not playing in Monday’s anticipated matchup against Nikola Jokić and the Denver Nuggets is what prevents Joel Embiid from winning the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award, the 76ers superstar said, “I don’t care.”
Embiid reiterated late Wednesday — after returning from a one-game absence with calf tightness in the Sixers’ 116-108 home win over the Dallas Mavericks — that his priority is being as healthy as possible for the playoffs that begin in about two weeks.
“If one game is going to hurt anybody’s chances, then I guess everybody should be out of it,” Embiid said of the MVP race. “We all have bad games. Guys miss matchups. That’s not the first time. And it’s not really a matchup about me and Nikola. He’s a great player. Amazing player. … He’s one of the best players in the league, and I’m a huge fan.
“So not playing against him was a huge bummer. But there’s a bigger goal in sight, and that’s to make sure we’re healthy for the playoffs.”
Jokić, who was named MVP the previous two seasons, along with Embiid and the Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo, are considered the frontrunners for this season’s award. The schedule fortuitously lined up for a late-season Sixers-Nuggets showdown in Denver, but Embiid was ruled out of the matchup shortly after Monday morning’s shootaround. Embiid had previously missed the second half of the Sixers’ win at the Chicago Bulls last Wednesday, but played in back-to-back losses at the Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns on Friday and Saturday.
Jokić totaled 25 points on 8-of-11 shooting, 17 rebounds and 12 assists in Monday’s Nuggets win. But that came after Embiid racked up 47 points (including the game-clinching three-pointer shot over Jokić), 18 rebounds, five assists, two blocks and three steals in the Sixers’ late-January victory over the Nuggets in Philly.
“I got nothing to prove,” Embiid said. “The last matchup, we won and I had whatever I had. To go out there and say that I’m scared after what I did the last time is kind of stupid. But, like I said, I don’t care if I win it or not. … I’m just focused on trying to win a championship, and whatever happens, happens.”
Embiid is finishing another dominant regular season for a Sixers team that is 50-26 and sits third in the Eastern Conference standings entering Thursday. He again leads the NBA in scoring (33.2 points per game) on a career-best 54.4% shooting from the field, while also averaging 10.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.7 blocks per game. He has also played in 62 games, while managing an ongoing foot issue before his recent calf tightness.
“Joel’s body of work speaks for itself,” Sixers coach Doc Rivers said. “We did the right thing there [in holding him out in Denver], so I don’t think that’s fair. You’re not judged for one game, that I know of. You’re judged for the entire season of work and your team’s record and how you perform. …
“Will [missing that game] hurt him? I doubt it. But it could. I don’t know what people use for a criteria. It seems like it changes weekly, what the real criteria is. Before, it was a bunch of numbers. Now, it’s wins. And I’m like, ‘Well, it wasn’t wins last year [when Jokić won the award when Denver was the Western Conference’s sixth seed], you know what I’m saying?
“It just feels like, every year, it keeps changing.”