Bulls vs. 76ers Monday NBA injury report, odds, props: Joel Embiid could set NBA record with another big game
The Sixers' Joel Embiid is playing the best basketball of his career.
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We told you late last week that Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid was the new MVP betting favorite at various sportsbooks, and he appears to be pulling away from Denver's two-time winner Nikola Jokic. Embiid is now -250 at Caesars Sportsbook to win the honor with Jokic at +170. It probably wouldn't hurt Embiid's cause to win if he were to set an NBA record Monday vs. the Chicago Bulls, which the 7-footer would do by scoring at least 30 points and hitting a minimum of 55% of his shots. He is set at over/under 33.5 points.
Don't rule out the Sixers stealing the East's top seed from Milwaukee and Boston. Philly won its eighth game in a row Saturday, a 141-121 victory at Indiana despite James Harden getting the second game of a back-to-back off – he should be in the lineup Monday. With the game out of hand, Embiid only had to play 31 minutes and had 31 points on 10-for-15 shooting.
It was his ninth straight 30-point game, breaking a tie for the longest in Sixers history with Wilt Chamberlain and Allen Iverson and tying the Mavericks' Luka Doncic for the longest such streak in the league this year. The last center with nine straight games of at least 30 points was Shaquille O'Neal, who did so in the 2000-01 season. It was also Embiid's 155th career game in which he scored at least 30 points, breaking a tie with Charles Barkley for second all-time in franchise history. Iverson leads with 303.
Embiid has hit at least 50% from the field in all nine games of his current run but at least 55% in each of the past seven. That seven-game run with a minimum of 55% shooting and 30 points ties LeBron James (2013) for the longest such streak in the shot-clock era (since 1954-55). Embiid has faced the Bulls once this year, way back on Oct. 29, and had 25 points on 9-for-15 (60%) shooting.
Philadelphia is up to second in the East, 2.5 games behind first-place Milwaukee. With Harden off the injury report -- he had a triple-double last time out Friday in Charlotte -- the only key player in question tonight is P.J. Tucker, who is dealing with left ankle soreness.
Chicago is listing its best perimeter defender, Alex Caruso, as questionable. Winners of two in a row, the Bulls hold the final play-in tournament spot in the East. Chicago snapped a 12-game losing skid to the 76ers with a 126-112 win in Philly on Jan. 6. Embiid missed that one. Zach LaVine had 41 points for the Bulls and is averaging 28.8 points per game in his last five contests in the series.
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