Joel Embiid for MVP? (1/4/22)
Today, Joel Embiid won Eastern Conference Player of the Month for December. During the month, Embiid compiled eight games with double-doubles, and he averaged 29.2 points, 11.2 rebounds, and 3.9 assists.
Only two other players in the history of the team have taken home this award at least three times in Allen Iverson and Julius Erving.
The night before taking home the award, Embiid had his third career triple-double against the worst team in the Western Conference in the Houston Rockets.
In thirty minutes of playing time, he managed to compile 31 points, 15 rebounds, and 10 assists, which is astonishing for a center.
No one in the history of the franchise has achieved those types of numbers since 1989 when Charles Barkley was playing.
Outside of Wilt Chamberlin, no other center in Sixers history has more triple-doubles than Embiid.
After a rough start to the season and a battle with Covid-19, Embiid is starting to pick up where he left off from last season.
Out of his last seven of eight games, he has tallied 30 or more points.
Over his last ten games, Embiid is averaging 30.7 points per game, a career-high 4.2 assists, shooting a career-high 41.2% from beyond the arc, and converting a career-high 52.7% of his field-goal attempts.
To make it more impressive is that he has dominated against some of the better teams in the league.
In Thursday’s game against arguably the best team in the Eastern Conference on the road, the Brooklyn Nets, he scored 34 points and led the Sixers to their most impressive win of the season.
He scored 41 points against a Celtics team that had both of their two young stars playing in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, and Embiid ultimately led the Sixers to an impressive win at TD Garden.
Earlier in the season, the Sixers only had eight players suit up because of a Covid-19 outbreak that had struck the team, but because of Embiid’s heroic play during the final minutes of the game, they managed to win in Chicago against a Bulls squad that has made a tremendous jump this season, and who are currently the best team in the Eastern Conference.
Embiid’s MVP play on the court has resulted in better play from the team overall.
The Sixers are currently on a four-game winning streak, which is their longest win streak in two months when they managed to pull off six straight wins and start the season 8–2.
If Embiid continues to dominate throughout the season, and if the Sixers manage to keep on piling on the wins to earn a higher seed within the Eastern Conference, then there’s a real shot that Embiid takes home his first-ever MVP award.
