Sources: Embiid out, Harden to return vs. Nuggets

Ahead of a much-anticipated meeting of two MVP front-runners, the Philadelphia 76ers are ruling out center Joel Embiid against the Denver Nuggets and Nikola Jokic on Monday night, sources told ESPN.

Embiid has been laboring with a sore right calf, and the Sixers decided to take a precautionary approach given the density of the team’s recent schedule, sources said.

Embiid did try to give it a go at the shootaround Monday morning, but the Sixers decided to give him some rest. Monday’s game in Denver is the Sixers’ third in four nights. Embiid played in both legs of the Sixers’ back-to-back against the Warriors and Suns on Friday and Saturday.

James Harden, who has missed three straight games with a sore Achilles, is on track to return tonight, sources said. He participated in the Monday shootaround.

Embiid scored 46 points — including 13 consecutive points in the fourth quarter — to go with 9 rebounds and 8 assists in a 120-112 loss at Golden State before finishing with 28 points and 10 rebounds in a loss at Phoenix.

Those games came after Embiid sat out of the second half of a blowout win in Chicago Wednesday with a right calf tightness, a game he could’ve returned to but the team chose to be cautious with him given it wasn’t a competitive game.

Monday’s game was a significant date on the NBA calendar because of the fact that Embiid and Jokic, once again, appeared locked in a battle to be named the league’s Most Valuable Player this season. Jokic and Embiid have finished first and second, in that order, each of the past two seasons, and Jokic led ESPN’s last MVP straw poll last month, taking 77 of the first place votes, while Embiid was third behind Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Various sportsbooks have installed Embiid as a slight favorite in recent weeks after his dominant post-All-Star Break stretch of play.

In the first game between these teams on Jan. 28 back in Philadelphia, Embiid put together a dominant performance — 47 points, 18 rebounds and 5 assists — to lead Philadelphia back from a 15-point deficit and beat Denver.

Embiid, the league’s leading scorer at 33.3 points per game, scored 28 of his points in the second half of that contest, and told ESPN afterward he felt this year’s version of the 76ers is the best team he’s been apart of in his NBA career.

Since the All-Star Break, Embiid has been utterly dominant, averaging 34.1 points per game on 56.9 percent shooting to go along with 10.3 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 2.4 blocks per game — all while playing against the NBA’s most difficult schedule, per ESPN’s Stats and Information research.

He’s had the league’s highest usage rate (37.2 percent) since the All-Star Break, and has scored 40.2 percent of Philadelphia’s points when he’s on the court this month — the highest percentage of any player in the league.

Harden, 33, has missed the past three games with left Achilles soreness after going 2-for-14 in 47 minutes in Philadelphia’s loss to Chicago at home a week ago. He’s been with the 76ers throughout their 3-game road trip, and 76ers coach Doc Rivers said before Friday’s game in San Francisco against the Golden State Warriors that there was a chance Harden could return against Phoenix Saturday and a “better” chance he was going to play Monday in Denver.

Harden participated fully in Philadelphia’s shootaround — a marked change from the limited work he was able to do Friday in Golden State — and ended his time on the court with an emphatic dunk after passing the ball to himself off the backboard.

In his first full season with the 76ers, Harden is leading the league with an average of 10.8 assists per game, in addition to averaging 21.4 points per game. Embiid and Harden are on pace to be the first teammates to lead the league in scoring and assists in the same season since Johnny Davis and George Gervin did it for the San Antonio Spurs in 1982.

ESPN’s Tim Bontemps contributed to this story.