NBA MVP straw poll: Joel Embiid has extremely small edge on Nikola Jokic
Jason Kidd and Grant Hill shared the NBAs Rookie of the Year award in 1995.
Before his team faced the Sixers on Wednesday night, the Mavs head coach had something similar in mind when asked how he’d compare Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic.
Both very talented, he began. Could they tie for MVP? Lets see if we can get that done.
In ESPNs Tim Bontemps final straw poll, Embiid and Jokic are incredibly close to a tie. Embiid has 790 total points, Jokic 788.
Though the Nuggets superstar got a league-best 42 first-place votes, Embiids 40 first-place votes, 45 second-place votes and 15 third-place votes were just enough to edge Jokic out.
Giannis Antetokounmpo came in third with 612 total points. Embiids Sixers are set to play the Bucks on Sunday night in Milwaukee.
Embiid, Jokic and Antetokounmpo were the only three players to receive first-place votes. Jayson Tatum finished fourth in the straw poll, Luka Doncic fifth.
Last season, Embiid was second to Jokic in the MVP race for a second straight year with 706 total points to Jokics 875. Antetokounmpo was third.
With six regular-season games left for the 50-26 Sixers, Embiid has played in 62 contests and averaged a league-leading 33.2 points, 10.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.7 blocks.
The six-time All-Star will end the year 1-0 against Jokic. Embiid was fantastic in a Jan. 28 win over the Nuggets, scoring 47 points and grabbing 18 rebounds. He missed the Sixers loss Monday in Denver because of right calf tightness.
I dont care, Embiid said Wednesday of the notion that sitting out that matchup could hurt his MVP chances. Its all about the playoffs. If one game is going to hurt anybodys chances, I guess everybody should be out of it. We all have bad games. Guys miss matchups; thats not the first time. And its not really a matchup about me and Nikola.
Hes a great player amazing player. Back-to-back MVPs. Hes one of the best players in the league and Im a huge fan. So not playing against him was a huge bummer, but theres a bigger goal in sight, and thats to make sure were healthy for the playoffs.
Like I said, Ive got nothing to prove. The last matchup we won and I had whatever (stats) I had. To go out there and say Im scared after what I did the last time is kind of stupid. But I dont care if I win it or not. Im just focused on trying to win a championship and whatever happens, happens. If I win, great. if I dont win anything, I dont care.
