Joel Embiid wins December’s Eastern Conference Player of the Month award

The NBA announced on Tuesday that Joel Embiid and Luka Doncic were named Players of the Month for their respective conferences.

The other ther Eastern Conference nominees were as follows: Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, Tyrese Haliburton and Buddy Hield, Donovan Mitchell, Pascal Siakam and Franz Wagner.

Embiid averaged 35.4 points, 9.9 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.3 steals, and 1.8 blocks throughout December’s 13 games. Most notably, his efficiency from the field was tremendous, especially given the volume of shot attempts. He nearly had a 50/40/90 spilt, shooting 54.4 percent from the floor, 41.7 percent from three and 85.8 percent at the free-throw line.

December featured many notable games, including an eight-game home winning streak against the Lakers, Hornets, Kings, Warriors, Raptors, Pistons and Clippers.

During the 13-game stretch, Embiid had one 53-point performance, two games featuring more than 40 points, and 10 games where he logged at least thirty points. He only scored fewer than 20 points one time — on Saturday against the Thunder, when he posted a triple-double. Embiid had eight double-doubles and one triple-double during this stretch.

Outside of scoring, Embiid anchored the third-best defense in the NBA, trailing only to Memphis and Cleveland in defensive rating during that span.

Embiid is in the midst of arguably his best career stretch of basketball. He’ll look to continue his two-way dominance against the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday at 7 p.m. EST.