Harden said that, in his mind, an MVP should be “dominant” on the court and “impactful in terms of winning,” which gives Embiid and the Sixers (45-27), who are 1½ games back of first place in the Eastern Conference, an edge over his chief rival for the award, Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets (43-31), who are sixth in the West. “Most of the games he’s played this year, we’ve been fighting for the No. 1 seed,” Harden said of Embiid. “And he’s not only top 2, top 3 in scoring, but he’s impactful to our team winning.” Jokic and Embiid finished 1-2 in last season’s voting and are expected to be two of the top three candidates — along with the Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo — for the award this season.