January 16, 2024
Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports
With 41 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds, Joel Embiid led the Sixers to an impressive victory over Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets.
Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center was the newest rendition of a matchup which has caused hours upon hours of heated debate in the basketball world: Joel Embiid vs. Nikola Jokic. The two seven-footers, who have placed first and second in Most Valuable Player voting in each of the last three seasons, have put together incredible runs of historic success, runs only rivaled by those of each other.
While the two former MVPs share similar levels of dominance, their paths to winning are very different. Jokic is one of the league's most efficient scorers, but leaves his transcendent mark with brilliant passing and playmaking abilities. While Embiid has made a massive leap as a playmaker this season, his signature skill is his scoring ability. Embiid is on pace to lead the league in points per game for the third consecutive season, a nearly unprecedented accomplishment.
"[Embiid] can hurt you in so many ways," Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said before the game. "He is almost unguardable."
A look at Jokic's two MVP seasons and Embiid's award-winning campaign last year portray the differences in how the two titanic big-men look to attack opposing teams: Jokic with his creation, and Embiid with his scoring and rim protection:
| Jokic 2020-21 | Jokic 2021-22 | Embiid 2022-23 |
| 26.4 PPG | 27.1 PPG | 33.1 PPG (led NBA) |
| 10.8 RPG | 13.8 RPG | 10.2 RPG |
| 8.3 APG | 7.9 APG | 4.2 APG |
| 0.7 BPG | 0.9 BPG | 1.7 BPG |
| 64.7 TS% | 66.1 TS% | 65.5 TS% |
This is how their numbers stack up so far during the 2023-24 season, too:
| Jokic 2023-24 | Embiid 2023-24 |
| 25.5 PPG | 35.1 PPG |
| 11.9 RPG | 11.6 RPG |
| 9.1 APG | 6.1 APG |
| 0.9 BPG | 1.9 BPG |
| 65.1 TS% | 65.0 TS% |
In their first matchup of the season, Embiid was the clear victor: the Sixers knocked off the Nuggets, 126-121, in a thriller Tuesday night, and the reigning MVP posted a line of 41 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, clearing Jokic's 25 points, 19 rebounds and three assists.
Embiid and the Sixers had a hard time keeping Jokic off the offensive glass. But across the board elsewhere, Jokic was thoroughly outplayed. The Sixers bottled up his playmaking to an extent rarely achieved by any team, and Embiid took center stage as a maestro, constantly leveraging his scoring gravity to generate good looks for his teammates, who rewarded him by shooting a collective 48.4 percent from beyond the arc.
"He was really reading the game and firing it out and finding guys off of double-teams," Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said.
But when the game came down to its final minutes, Embiid went back to his bread and butter, the skill that makes him the MVP-caliber player that he is: putting the ball in the basket.
"He made some really critical shots," Nurse said. "At the end, he was just pouring in buckets."
