Joel Embiid had a terrific game against the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night, tearing them apart throughout the entire game, starting with 23 points in the first half of the match. He finished with 36 in the Sixers’ 113-95 over the Dallas Mavericks.
He played really great and showed all his dominance over the Texans, who couldn’t do anything to stop him. After the game, the MVP candidate talked about his season, comparing himself to another dominant big man, Shaquille O’Neal. He has been unstoppable this season and he found similarities between himself and the Big Diesel, who is curiously the last center to win the MVP award.
“Shaq was extremely dominant and that’s what I’ve been this season: dominant.”
Joel Embiid, when asked about Shaquille O'Neal (1999-00) being the last center to win the MVP and him going for the award this year:
"Shaq was extremely dominant and that's what I've been this season: dominant."@FortyEightMins | #HereTheyCome pic.twitter.com/m9y90IkEOp
— Chris W. Crouse (@ChrisWCrouse) April 13, 2021
Back in 2000, Shaq earned the coveted award in a year that saw him win the NBA championship alongside Kobe Bryant. Right now Embiid has a big case to win the award even after missing several games due to an injury. If he can keep this pace and his team finishes the season with the No. 1 position in the Eastern Conference, there won’t be a lot of arguments against Embiid to win the MVP award this campaign.
If he emulates Shaq, that could mean good things are going the Sixers way this campaign. As of right now, Embiid averages 29.6 points, 11.0 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game. Shaq recorded 29.7 points, 13.6 rebounds and 3.8 assists during his MVP-winning campaign.
It seems like JoJo is getting close to that but the competition is getting harder every week. He’ll need to do something huge from now until the end of the season if he wants to get that prize.
