Last night, Joel Embiid’s 76ers played the Celtics and he scored 52 points, while Nikola Jokic had only 14 points in the Nuggets’ 21-point loss to the last-placed team in the West.
Embiid just seems to have surged ahead and while the 76ers center was already the odds-on favorite to win MVP, those odds have now shifted dramatically.
The Vegas sportsbooks have Embiid’s odds to take home his first MVP at -1000 and for perspective, Jokic is at +1200.
In Philly’s 103-101 win against Boston to go with his 52 points, Embiid recorded 13 rebounds, six assists and shot 20-25 from the field and became just the second player NBA history to record 50 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and 80 percent shooting in a game, joining Wilt Chamberlain (2x).
“The man just scored half our points in an NBA game,” 76ers coach Doc Rivers said, via NBC Sports’ John Clark. “I’m biased, but the MVP race is over.”
“Joel should win it,” Sixers guard James Harden said. “He’s been in contention for it the last few years. He led the league in scoring last year. It looks like he’s going to lead the league in scoring this year. We’re the third seed in the East. He’s been consistent all year.”
If you look at Embiid and Jokers’ numbers over their last ten games, Jokic has averaged 25.3 points, 11.7 rebounds. 8.7 assists on 65.7 percent shooting from the field compared to Embiid’s 31.6 points, 10.2 rebounds, 4.7 assists on 56 percent shooting from the field.
It helps that the 76ers big man also leads the league in scoring but crazily enough, Jokic is 0.2 assists from averaging a triple double for the season and the Nuggets may end up being first seed in the West, which may not end up being enough to secure MVP honors.
Up until March, Jokic had led the race for most of the season and is going for the three-peat, which hasn’t been done since Larry Bird in 1986, but on March 16 the odds switched to Embiid’s favor and due to his amazing consistency, they haven’t switched back since.