There is a narrative surrounding Joel Embiid that involves him ducking certain matchups, particularly ones against Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic on his home court.
The reigning MVP played on his own home court in Philly against Denver on January 16 of this year.
But a short time later on January 27, missed the Sixers’ clash with the Nuggets in Denver.
It also didn’t help that Embiid mysteriously entered the injury report 15 minutes before tipoff.
In fact, Embiid hasn’t played a game in Denver since November 8 in 2019.
But, Embiid’s trainer, Drew Hanlen, recently discussed the ‘ducking smoke’ theory surrounding the center and thinks it has no legs.
“We just kind of laugh about it,” Hanlen told Sportskeeda. “He’s played Jokic two times in the last two years and he had 47, 18, and five, he had 41, 10 and seven,” Hanlen said.
“I don’t know why you would duck somebody that you’re averaging 45, 13 and eight against. If you look at Joel versus other big guys, he’s just dominated them. Joel loves playing the best big guys in the world. Any time he’s healthy enough to play against them, he’s going to be out there.”
If the NBA postseason results go a certain way, it could end up being a 76ers-Nuggets clash in the NBA Finals series.
Despite missing the last game of regular season, Philly coach Nick Nurse explained that Embiid was a full participant at practice on Monday and that there is no concern about his knee post surgery.
Nurse fully expects his highest scoring player to take the floor on Wednesday against the Heat in the first round of the playoffs.
“He was good,” Nurse said. “He was in good spirits. He was highly engaged. A lot of things we were doing were super game plan-specific. He was locked in.”
