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Tim BontempsESPN
Joel Embiid, star of the Philadelphia 76ers, said his dominant performance in the 131-123 victory over the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night was fueled by the game against Rudy Gobert.
Embiid, who had 40 points – including a 3-pointer at par, with 6.5 seconds left in the final, 19 rebounds, three assists, a steal and two blocks in 40 minutes – told Jackie MacMullan from ESPN in December that Gobert should not have been the third All-NBA team last season over him. He has also repeatedly said he wants to win Defensive Player of the Year – an award Gobert is favored to win this season – and took exception from local media members who said he was “scared ”To play against the big man in the Jazz after losing Philadelphia loss to Utah last month with a back injury.
“As I saw tonight, I seem to have been very, very scared of him,” Embiid said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “So, yes, keep talking.
“But, rising up against him, one of my goals is to be the Defensive Player of the Year. So, you know, when you go against the guy guys, he’s a great player and you know, he does a lot for his team that doesn’t show up on the state sheet … but when you go against those guys, you know, it brings something different to my game.
“I want to dominate. At the offensive end, but especially at the defensive end, because this is the goal I set for myself at the beginning of the year … these are the matches you want to get out there and dominate and prove all of us that, as a team, we have a great team and, individually, you should be there when it comes to these rankings and more. “
Embiid was the difference at both ends for Philadelphia. While the Jazz outscored Sixers 63-24 on the 3-point line, Embiid continued his season parade to the foul line – he took 13 himself, while the Jazz took 19 as a team, one of several things that led jazz star Donovan Mitchell to be expelled and several Utah players criticized officials after the game. Embiid was also defensive everywhere, repeatedly breaking his lobes at Gobert on the sidelines and, in one piece, stopping a Mitchell race only to immediately jump back and block an attempt to dunk Gobert.
But for Embiid, the disrespect he gained in voting for the awards last season after the Sixers came out of the playoffs in a first-round round at the Boston Celtics was a source of motivation for him. publicly spoken, returning to pre-season.
However, he specifically chose Gobert as a source of frustration because he was selected as the third All-NBA center team in front of him.
“I agree that Anthony Davis had a better season than I did,” Embiid told MacMullan in December. “[Nikola] Jokic? It’s debatable. What about Rudy Gobert? No offense, but him [averaged] 15 [points] and 13 [rebounds] and I was 23 and 12, and that’s a big difference. I think my numbers were better. But people didn’t want to vote for me because our team didn’t do well.
“It’s okay, because I’m going to use it to motivate myself, so there’s no chance of anyone making that mistake again.”
When asked after Wednesday’s game if that snub played any role in his performance, he did not try to hide it.
“It’s pretty fair,” Embiid said. “But what motivates me is to win the game. Without winning, you know, you’re not part of those conversations when it comes to Defensive Player of the Year and MVP and all that. That’s the first thing. I want to win. That’s all I care about. .
“The past is the past. It’s unfortunate the way things happened last year when I wasn’t there … it plays a huge role in my mindset this year, just wanting to destroy everything in my path. I play against many players. “Everybody’s good at what they do. But wherever I need to do the job, defensively and offensively, that’s what I have to do.”
Embiid, who will start Sunday’s All-Star game in Atlanta, easily has the best season of his career, averaging 30.2 points, 11.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists. He is one of the main contenders for the MVP award, as Philadelphia enters the All-Star Break with a half-game advantage over the Brooklyn Nets for the best record in the Eastern Conference.
But after several games recently, Embiid has repeatedly said that he is more interested in winning Defensive Player of the Year than MVP – although, to be fair, he will not deny this honor if it happens to him.
And while Embiid said on Wednesday several times that his teammate Ben Simmons also deserves to be in the mix for the defensive award – speaking before the game, Sixers coach Doc Rivers said he believes Simmons should be favored. , before Gobert, for that – Embiid said he is focused on winning the honor because he has been aiming to enter the NBA.
“When I joined the league, I never thought I would be such a good offense,” Embiid said. “I always focused on the defensive side and that was always my goal to win it. It would be nice to do it, but like I said, that was my goal in the league and obviously the score and the offensive side. assumed.
“I kept coming back to the same thing – you can’t be in those conversations without winning. Right now, we’re winning, we’re first in the East, we’ve beaten the best team in the league. We’ve got a bunch of great teammates doing a Great job, see [Sixers teammate Tobias Harris], that’s why I preach for him to be All Star, because you look at the nights like tonight, he dominated in overtime. And you know, as a team, we play well together, we move the ball and we defend ourselves well. “