Joel Embiid scores 41, outduels Nikola Jokic as Sixers top Nuggets

PHILADELPHIA — Before Tuesday night’s showdown between the Philadelphia 76ers and the defending champion Denver Nuggets, 76ers coach Nick Nurse was asked about the head-to-head battle between the top two finishers in the past three MVP races: 76ers center Joel Embiid and Nuggets counterpart Nikola Jokic.

“The card tonight is more than just the big heavyweight matchup,” Nurse said with a smile. “There’s a little bit more going on.”

That might have been true. But the two superstar big men more than lived up to their billing atop the marquee.

And it was Embiid who ultimately landed the knockout blow.

Embiid finished with 41 points, 7 rebounds and 10 assists, while Jokic had 24 points, 19 rebounds — including 11 offensive boards — and 3 assists. But it was Embiid’s 10 consecutive points in the fourth quarter that proved to be the difference in a 126-121 victory.

“I think we finally got some stops defensively,” Embiid said afterward. “We knew that, especially at halftime, after both teams gave up 78 points each, we just knew that the first team to get some stops were going to have a good chance of winning the game, and we were that team.”

Before his 41-point, 10-rebound performance Monday against the Houston Rockets, Embiid had missed three games in a row because knee soreness and seven of Philadelphia’s past nine games because of the sore knee and a sprained ankle. But he wasn’t even listed on the injury report Tuesday against Denver.

Embiid’s streak of having at least 30 points and 10 rebounds ended at 16 games, tying him with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the longest by anyone not named Wilt Chamberlain in NBA history, but that didn’t diminish his dominance in this one — particularly in the closing minutes.

Down five to start the fourth quarter, the 76ers (26-13) managed to tie the score when Embiid and Jokic checked back into the game with 7:28 to go. Then, after Jokic and Tyrese Maxey traded baskets, Embiid staked Philadelphia to a lead it wouldn’t relinquish by scoring 10 straight points — Euro-stepping around Jokic for a layup, getting an and-1 jumper, hitting a 3-pointer and burying another jumper.

“This was a game that went down to the wire,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “We came up short. Joel [Embiid] is a hell of a talent.”

It was a fitting conclusion to a wildly entertaining game, one that saw both teams score 78 points in the first half in a game in which defense was, for large portions, seemingly optional. According to ESPN Stats & Information research, the combined 156 first-half points were the most in a tie game in the shot clock era (since 1954).

But, more than anything, the head-to-head matchup of two of the league’s best players more than lived up to the hype. According to ESPN Stats & Information research, Embiid became the first opposing center this season to have more points and assists than Jokic in a game. The only other one to do it in the past two…