By The Associated Press
Joel Embiid is the runner-up no more. After finishing second in each of the last two years, Philadelphia’s MVP is the NBA’s MVP.
Embiid won the league’s top individual award on Tuesday night, topping Denver’s Nikola Jokic — who had won the two previous MVP trophies — and two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo of Milwaukee.
Embiid got 73 of 100 first-place votes. That’s an overwhelming margin, but the NBA has seen lots of those. There are 24 other instances of someone winning MVP with a higher percentage of first-place votes, obviously topped by Stephen Curry’s unanimous selection in 2016.
He wasn’t the only one celebrating a win in the NBA on Tuesday. New York evened its Eastern Conference semifinal series at a game apiece with Miami by beating the Heat 111-105, and the Los Angeles Lakers opened their Western Conference semifinal by beating defending champion Golden State 117-112.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Philadelphia will play Game 2 at Boston on Wednesday. On Thursday, the Lakers and Warriors will play Game 2 in San Francisco.
Friday’s slate will see Denver trying to take a 3-0 lead over Phoenix, plus Game 3 of 76ers-Celtics as that series shifts to Philadelphia. New York and Miami don’t play again until Saturday, their Game 3 that day preceding Game 3 of Lakers-Warriors that night.
HOW TO WATCH
— Wednesday’s 76ers-Celtics game is on TNT.
— Thursday’s Lakers-Warriors game is on ESPN.
— The Boston-Philadelphia and Denver-Phoenix games on Friday are on ESPN.
— Saturday’s doubleheader — New York-Miami and Warriors-Lakers — will air on ABC.
— Team broadcasters will no longer air games. Everything after the first round is exclusive to national windows and not available for local telecasts.
— The NBA Finals on ABC begin June 1.
INJURY UPDATES
Phoenix guard Chris Paul is day-to-day with a strained left groin that forced him to leave Game 2 in Denver in the third quarter. Even the slightest groin strains typically take at least a few days to heal, meaning Paul’s status for Game 3 on Friday (and likely beyond) is in doubt.
Miami played Game 2 against the Knicks without Jimmy Butler, out with a sprained ankle.
INSIDE THE VOTE
Joel Embiid appeared on all 100 MVP ballots. Nikola Jokic appeared on 99 of them, though the omission didn’t affect the outcome. Giannis Antetokounmpo also appeared on all 100 and fourth-place finisher Jayson Tatum of Boston was on 98.
The counts drop off big-time from there — fifth-place finisher Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Oklahoma City appeared on 34 ballots.
LEBRON’S STREAK
For the first time in his 20-year career, LeBron James did not get an MVP vote. His 19-year streak with at least one vote was the longest in NBA history. There were 13 players who got a first-, second-, third-, fourth- or fifth-place vote this season.
The longest active streak of years with at least one MVP vote now belongs to Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has gotten a vote in each of the last seven seasons.
Stephen Curry has gotten a vote in 10 of the last 11 — the exception being the 2019-20 season when he played in only five games in what essentially was the Warriors’ reset season.
MVP TRIVIA
There have been 17 instances where someone won MVP without getting at least 50.1% of the first-place votes. And three players — Magic Johnson (29.3% in 1990), Bob Cousy (28.8% in 1957) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (28.1% in 1976) — won without getting 30% of first-place nods.
That 1990 vote has one other trivia nugget: The winner didn’t even get the most first-place votes that year. Johnson got 27, while runner-up Charles Barkley got 38.
AWARD WINNERS
Other than MVP, a recap of this season’s awards:
— April 17: Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr. won Defensive Player of the Year.
— April 18: De’Aaron Fox of Sacramento won the inaugural Clutch Player award.
— April 19: Sacramento’s Mike Brown became the first unanimous Coach of the Year.
— April 20: Boston’s Malcolm Brogdon won Sixth Man of the Year.
— April 24: Utah’s Lauri Markkanen was the easy winner of Most Improved Player.
— April 25: Orlando’s Paolo Banchero was a near-unanimous Rookie of the Year.
QUOTABLE
“Our guys can’t wait for Saturday. It can’t happen soon enough, to get out there and compete again.” — Miami coach Erik Spoelstra, after the Heat lost Game 2 to New York.
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
