The Philadelphia 76ers will play against the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday for the 2024-25 NBA season. However, the Sixers are without their star center, Joel Embiid, who’s set to miss his eighth consecutive game due to a left knee injury. With the news that he’s set to miss another game, the hosts at “Run It Back” discussed if Embiid is dodging playing against Nikola Jokic.
Michelle Beadle claims that Embiid’s most recent performance in Denver took place on Nov. 8, 2019. Since then, the Sixers big man has not suited up whenever the team is in Colorado. Either he’s injured or under injury management.
“By the way, so Embiid’s just never played — just doesn’t play in Denver,” Beadlee said. “Specifically in Denver.
The former Houston Rockets forward and Beadle’s co-host, Chandler Parsons, came to Embiid’s defense.
“He’s not ducking,” Parsons defended Joel Embiid.
Beadle followed with this:
“Maybe not now, but he has.”
Joel Embiid last played in Denver on November 8th, 2019 😳 pic.twitter.com/epUmgcpWS2
— Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) January 22, 2025
“It’s a tough place to play. It’s my least favorite place to play,” Parsons argued.
Beadle doubled down on her opinion about Embiid and said she doesn’t care Denver is a tough place to play in.
Embiid has only participated in 13 games this season due to injuries. In addition to averaging 24.4 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 3.8 assists, he is shooting 45.2% from the field. He is also playing less than 30 minutes per game on average for the third time in his career, averaging 29.5 minutes per game.
He missed the first six games of the season due to a knee injury that he had to deal with. Then he got into a fight with a journalist, and the league suspended him for three games. After that, he played in four of the team’s five games to make his season debut.
He missed seven games in a row, though, as the injuries returned to bother him.
Joel Embiid still has a winning record over Jokic
While Joel Embiid has not played for almost 2,000 days in Denver due to various injuries, he still has the upper hand in his head-to-head battles against Jokic. According to Land of Basketball, the two centers have played eight games against each other.
Surprisingly, Embiid has a winning record of 6-2 against the three-time MVP. The Sixers star averages 27.6 points, 11.3 rebounds and 4.4 assists when facing Jokic. In the past three games of their head-to-head games across each other, the seven-time All-Star averaged 40.7 points, 11.3 rebounds and 6.3 assists.
Embiid’s game-high against Jokic was on Jan. 28, 2023. The Sixers star finished the game with 47 points, 18 rebounds, five assists, three steals and two blocks to lead Philly to a 126-119 win.
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Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen with Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
