Philadelphia 76ers’ Joel Embiid states case for defensive hardware in all-around

Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid said his dominant performance in a 131-123 win over the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night was fueled by playing against Rudy Gobert.

Embiid, who had 40 points — including the game-tying 3-pointer with 6.5 seconds left to go with 19 rebounds, three assists, a steal and two blocks in 40 minutes — told ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan in December that Gobert shouldn’t have been third-team All-NBA last season over him. He also has said repeatedly he wants to win Defensive Player of the Year — an award Gobert is favored to win this season — and took exception to local media members saying he was “scared” of playing against the Jazz big man after missing Philadelphia’s loss in Utah last month with a back injury.

“As we saw tonight, it looks like I was very, very scared of him,” Embiid said, his voice dripping in sarcasm. “So, yeah, keep talking.

“But going up against him, one of my goals is to also be Defensive Player of the Year. So, you know, when you go up against those types of guys, he’s a great player, and you know, he does a lot for his team that don’t show up on the stat sheet … but when you go against those guys, you know, it brings something else to my game.

“I want to dominate. On the offensive end, but mainly on the defensive end, because that’s the goal I set for myself at the beginning of the year … those are the matchups that you want to go out there and just dominate and prove to everybody that, as a team, that we have a great team, and, individually, you should be up there when it comes to those rankings and stuff.”

Embiid was the difference at both ends for Philadelphia. While the Jazz outscored the Sixers 63-24 at the 3-point line, Embiid continued his season-long parade to the foul line — he took 13 himself, while the Jazz took 19 as a team, one of several things that led up to Jazz star Donovan Mitchell being ejected and multiple Utah players criticizing the officials after the game. Embiid was also everywhere defensively, repeatedly breaking up lobs to Gobert at the rim and, on one play, stopping a Mitchell drive only to immediately jump back up and block a Gobert dunk attempt.

But for Embiid, the lack of respect he got in award voting last season, after the Sixers exited the playoffs in a first-round sweep by the Boston Celtics, has been a source of motivation he has talked about publicly going back to the preseason.

He specifically, however, singled out Gobert as a source of frustration for being selected as the third-team All-NBA center ahead of him.

“I agree that Anthony Davis had a better season than me,” Embiid told MacMullan in December. “[Nikola] Jokic? That’s debatable. But Rudy Gobert? No offense, but he [averaged] 15 [points] and 13 [rebounds] and I had my 23 and 12, and that’s kind of 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.

“That’s OK, because I will use it to motivate me so there is no chance that anyone can make that mistake again.”

When asked after Wednesday’s game if that snub played any role in his performance, he didn’t try to hide it.

“That’s pretty fair,” Embiid said….