Philadelphia beating Dallas is always a headliner, though the story of the 113-95 win was really Joel Embiid.
The big man scored 36 points in just 26 minutes of court time, mixing in floaters, drives to the hole, and punishing dunks as he got the Sixers out to a big enough lead that its starters could have most of the night off.
“This year, the system that we have is dynamic,” Embiid told FortyEightMinutes and other media members. “It allows me to be myself.”
Embiid added that he doesn’t view himself as just a post player.
“I’ve always seen myself as just being, you know, like, I don’t know, Kevin Durant, just moving all over the place, shooting off the dribble, handling the ball, crossovers, posting up,” the MVP candidate said.
More From Philadelphia
- No center has won the MVP since Shaquille O’Neal did so during the 1999-00 season and Doc Rivers believes that means there is just a plethora of talent at other positions, more so than any sort of signal that a player at the five can’t take home the award. “There’s a lot of good players other than center,” the coach explained.
- Embiid when asked about O’Neal being the last center to win the MVP: “Shaq was extremely dominant and that’s what I’ve been this season: dominant.”
- The Sixers crushed the Mavs earlier in the season in Philadelphia and at the time, Rivers mentioned that he knew some of Dallas’ plays since Seth Curry was on Rick Carlisle’s roster last season. Rivers said after the win on Monday that it was less of a factor than it may seem since the NBA is the most “heavily scouted league in the world.” The coach mentioned that the Mavs probably knew some of their plays too.
- On Wednesday, the Sixers get a home game against the Nets and while everyone may be anticipating the matchup, Rivers said he was unaware that the team’s next game was against Brooklyn. “I’m a one game at a time guy,” Rivers told the media while explaining that on many occasions, he doesn’t look ahead to scout regular-season contests until that game is the next one up.
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