Rivers Declares MVP Race Over as Joel Embiid Dominates Celtics

76ers head coach Doc Rivers is sure Joel Embiid is the NBA's MVP after Philly's win over the Celtics.

The Philadelphia 76ers entered Tuesday night’s matchup against the Boston Celtics with three losses against their Atlantic Division rivals this season. With the Celtics down a couple of key players, the Sixers were in a good position to avoid a sweep.

It wasn’t a pretty win for the Sixers on Tuesday night. Although the Celtics were undermanned, they stayed within a single-digit reach. And during the final moments of the game, the Sixers couldn’t help but get in their own way, allowing the Celtics to crawl back anytime the game seemed over.

“There are so many things that we did wrong,” Sixers head coach Doc Rivers admitted after the matchup. “But what we did right was Joel Embiid.”

From the start until the finish on Tuesday, Embiid put together another spectacular performance to add to his portfolio for this season. In the first quarter of action, Embiid checked in for the entire quarter, making all but one of his seven field goals and drilling six of his seven free throws. 

Through one quarter, Embiid scored 18 of Philadelphia’s 28 points. After getting half of the second quarter off, Embiid checked in and finished the first half with 24 points in 18 minutes of action. 

In the second half, Embiid looked to help his team pull away from the Celtics. Checking in for the entire third quarter, the big man made all six of his shots from the field and went 2-2 from the charity stripe. He tacked on another 14 points before the fourth quarter. 

After getting a few minutes off in the fourth quarter, Embiid came back out on the floor. Trading shots with the Celtics, Embiid knocked down five of his six shots. He was responsible for 14 of Philadelphia’s 31 fourth-quarter points.

Although it wasn’t the cleanest win, the Sixers took down the Celtics 103-101. Embiid produced another 50-plus point outing by knocking down 20 of his 25 shots from the field, scoring 52 points. He made it a double-double by coming down with 13 rebounds. 

“The MVP race is over,” Rivers continued. “Really, like tonight, we couldn’t make shots. We had guys [missing] wide-open shots — the man just scored half of our points in an NBA game. I’m biased, but the MVP race is over.”

Coaching Embiid for the last couple of seasons, Rivers has seen a lot of standout performances from the six-time All-Star. When asked if he believes Tuesday’s matchup versus Boston was Embiid’s best yet, Rivers somewhat agrees with that notion. 

“Because we were struggling scoring and couldn't make shots, it was probably the best as far as timing,” the head coach finished. “I mean, he had to make tough shots. We just couldn't get anything going and that's something we have to correct.”

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.