PHILADELPHIA — The two titans of the NBA met at the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday night a prime-time clash. Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid and Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic, arguably the two best players in the league, faced off and didn’t disappoint.
Embiid went for 41 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds. Jokic went for 25 points and 19 rebounds. The Sixers walked away with a 126-121 win over the Nuggets.
Afterward, Embiid gave his props to Jokic, calling him the best player in the game. Until Embiid can knock off Jokic and win a title of his own, that will remain the case.
“Until you knock them down, that’s the best team in the league and he’s the Finals MVP,” Embiid said if Jokic. “So until someone else takes that away, then you can claim that so, but then again, I also believe in myself. So I keep it at that. I just gotta get there.”
There is also the social media war between Sixers and Nuggets fans as they defend their guy. Insults fly all over X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram and whatnot, but Embiid and Jokic are just trying to play basketball.
“It’s funny because, you know, Twitter, they have a war going on between Philly fans and Denver fans,” Embiid said. “And it’s funny because both of us are just like, ‘Who cares? We just want to play basketball and win some games’ and so he deserved it.”
While Jokic is who he is, the fact of the matter is Embiid won both the individual battle and the war. He had the 41 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter, and he did enough to get the Sixers the win.
On the flip side, this is something the big fella does normally.
“It’s not like I just woke up and I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to try and go at him and try to have 40 or 50,’” Embiid added. “I try to do it every single, every single game. My goal is to do whatever it takes to win and sometimes it’s scoring a lot of points and sometimes it’s be the best defensive player in the league. I don’t think my mindset was any different. I think the mindset is always if doesn’t matter what’s in front of me. They’re gonna get it, and I’m gonna try to be as dominant as I can. The result is the result.”
The result on this night was a Sixers win.
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