PHILADELPHIA -- Reigning league MVP Joel Embiid returned from his latest injury to score 41 points and grab 10 rebounds in leading the Philadelphia 76ers to a 124-115 victory over the Houston Rockets on Monday.
Embiid's 17 straight games with 30 points are a franchise record. He earned his seventh 40-point double-double this season, the most in the NBA. Embiid now has 42 games of at least 40 points and 10 rebounds, the seventh most in NBA history.
His absences, though, have piled up, placing his candidacy for another MVP trophy on the rocks. He can miss only eight more games out of the final 44 before he is no longer eligible for MVP.
"It doesn't matter how many games I play; the goal is to be healthy the rest of the year," Embiid said Monday.
Embiid's health is of course crucial to a Philadelphia team hopeful of a deep playoff run. Embiid has never had a fully healthy postseason campaign, the key reason the franchise hasn't advanced out of the second round in his tenure.
The new collective bargaining agreement requires players, in most instances, to play in 65 regular-season games to be eligible for awards such as MVP or the All-NBA teams. Embiid, who is playing in his 8th NBA season, has met that threshold only twice -- when he played a career-best 68 games in 2021-22 and 66 games last season, when he won his first MVP award.
"I've already done it," Embiid said. "If I have a chance to get a second one, I'll do it. I'm not going to force myself or push for it. My game is always going to speak for itself. We're winning. That's the main thing. We've got to keep winning and you put in the stats to be in the [MVP] conversation that's great, too. But at the end of the day, if there's something going on, and I can't meet the requirement for the amount of games played to qualify for that, then so be it."
Embiid, 29, sat out the past three games with left knee inflammation, and the 76ers went 1-2. He had played just two games this month after he missed all four contests on the 76ers' holiday road trip.
The Sixers are 3-7 this season without Embiid -- the two-time defending league scoring champion -- and 22-6 with him.
When healthy -- or, healthy enough -- Embiid makes the game look easy and makes the Sixers look like contenders. If his knee still ached on Monday, it didn't show in a 13-point first quarter. Embiid sure looked fine when he dropped another 13 in the second quarter and grabbed his 10th rebound in the fourth before checking out for good with the Sixers up 114-94.
"We look at the long run and what's coming up next," Embiid said. "Hopefully it doesn't swell up again."
Embiid indicated he'll be ready for his 29th game of the year Tuesday in an anticipated home matchup against two-time MVP Nikola Jokic and the defending champion Denver Nuggets. Embiid -- who missed his entire first two seasons with injuries -- was roasted by some media last March when he sat out against the Nuggets with a sore right calf. Jokic had 25 and 17 in a Denver win.
"Joel Embiid is ducking that smoke today and you all know how I feel about Joel Embiid," ESPN analyst and former NBA center Kendrick Perkins said.
Embiid dismissed that criticism last year -- and more that has surfaced this season as his absences increase -- and says he'll play when he's healthy enough to play.
He also downplayed Tuesday was a Jokic-Embiid showdown. The focus needed to stay on the 76ers vs. the Nuggets.
"They're best team in the league, best player in the league and we've got to try and do our best to get a win," he said. "It's fun. I like the competition. Who doesn't want to play against the best?"
The Associated Press contributed to this report.