Rick Carlisle Heavily Praised Joel Embiid After Sixers' Dominant Win

The Indiana Pacers and the Philadelphia 76ers met for the third and final time this season on Saturday afternoon. Earlier this week, the Sixers and the Pacers battled it out in Indiana just one game after Philly punched its ticket to the playoffs.

Although the Sixers didn't have much more to play for, the usual starters played. As always, Sixers center Joel Embiid dominated as he looks to push his MVP campaign to the limits with the regular season winding down.

On Tuesday, Embiid checked into the matchup against the Pacers for 39 minutes. Coming off of a 44-point showing against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Embiid notched himself another spectacular scoring performance with 45 points against the Pacers.

When the Sixers and the Pacers met for a second time this week, Embiid mirrored his Tuesday night performance as he dominated all afternoon long.

Rick Carlise Sends Praise Embiid's Way

"He's making a strong push for MVP," said Pacers head coach Rick Carlise. "It's a winning team. He's stuffing the stat sheet. He's playing the right way. Passes it out of double teams. We haven't seen a guy quite like this in the history of the league that has this kind of power and skill and ability to score at all three levels really effortlessly. He's an amazing player, and it'll be really interesting to see him play in the playoffs and see what teams try to do to slow him down."

On Saturday, Embiid became the first player to produce over 40 points while collecting 20 rebounds this season. While Embiid brushed off the seasonal accomplishment, outsiders looking in continued to be amazed at what the Sixers big man can accomplish on a nightly basis.

Whether Embiid can find the edge over the defending MVP Nikola Jokic or not is unclear. Still, Philadelphia's big man is once again putting on a seasonal campaign for the ages as he continues to dominate at a high level.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.

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