Joel Embiid may have sewn up the MVP award in a dominating performance, as he led the Philadelphia 76ers to victory over the Boston Celtics. Embiid scored 52 points on 20-of-25 shooting, grabbed 13 rebounds, dished out six assists and blocked two shots in the Sixers 103-101 victory.
In the eyes of his coach, that should have been enough for Embiid to wrap up the MVP award.
“There were so many things that we did wrong. But what we did right was Joel Embiid. The MVP race is over. Tonight, we couldn’t make shots. The man just scored half our points in an NBA game,” Doc Rivers said. “And I’m biased but the MVP race is over.”
Embiid was leading the tightly contested three-way MVP race as of the latest, and final, straw poll conducted by ESPN. The Sixers center led Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo atop tentative awards ballots, which don’t need to be finalized until the completion of the regular season.
