Following a 52-point outburst in Boston Tuesday during which he shot 20-of-25 from the field, Joel Embiid has cemented his status as the MVP favorite over Nikola Jokic this season. Steph Curry and Damian Lillard recently pointed to the Philadelphia 76ers big man as their pick for the award, and Sixers head coach Doc Rivers emphasized the meaning of those endorsements when making his case for Embiid on Sunday.

“(Damian) Lillard said it the other day, Steph Curry said it. When you hear other players, and they rarely chime in on MVP, but when you hear other players chime in and they’re saying it’s Joel because he’s the most dominant, they’re telling you something,” Rivers said ahead of Philadelphia's regular-season finale. “They really are, they’re speaking it into existence.”

Curry picked Embiid for MVP during an interview with Bleacher Report's Chris Haynes.

“I would say Joel,” Curry said. “Any person you pick, their body of work could be compared to Jokić or Giannis. But Joel took a leap that I think a lot of people didn't expect because he was dominant already. That leap turned heads and put Philly in a great position. If I had to pick, it would be him.”

Lillard said the requirements for Jokic to win a third consecutive MVP should be higher while endorsing Embiid on the Dan Patrick Show.

“I pick Joel Embiid because I feel like he’s been dominant all season long,” he said. “His team is winning. I feel like he could’ve won it one of the last two years, but Jokic won it both times. I just think because he’s been, to me, the most dominant player and has been carrying his team, you can’t continue to give it to a guy who’s won it twice in a row. Especially when you have a guy like this that’s performing at the same level, maybe even higher. And he also didn’t get it one of the last two times when he was at that level. I just think that’s not how it should work.”

Joel Embiid led the league in scoring at 33.1 points per game on 55/33/88 shooting splits. The former top 3 pick will become the first center to win back-to-back scoring titles since Bob McAdoo did it three in straight seasons from 1974-76. Jokic has averaged 24.5 points on 63/38/82 splits while dishing out 9.8 assists per game.

A late-season push from Embiid has pulled him near dead even with Jokic in Player Efficiency Rating after the Nuggets center held a sizable lead early this season. The majority of advanced stats that once served as the main case for Jokic's three-peat have followed that trend.

Joel Embiid's impact has far transcended his scoring, with the 29-year-old averaging 10.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.7 blocks and a steal on the season. His interior presence is the main reason for Philadelphia's eighth-ranked defensive rating this season. Per PBP stats, the Sixers post a 112.4 defensive rating (eighth in NBA) with Embiid on the floor. That number plummets to 117.23 (27th in NBA) when he sits. Just 30.6 percent of the opposition's shots come at the rim with Embiid in the game. That increases by 6.6 percent when he's on the bench, one of the largest differences among any NBA player this season.

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Rivers detailed Embiid's two-way dominance this season when speaking on the center's development in his seventh NBA season.

“You can't score the points that he scores without having a pretty high IQ. Because every team is gonna throw everything at him. They're gonna switch and double team, they're gonna double team fast, they're gonna double team slow. You know that going into it,” the coach said. “His jump scoring is amazing, he's dominant.

“The scoring is amazing, but where he's scoring now compared to where he scores two years ago is what stands out to me. That took a lot of work. Then his passing also. And then he's always been a good defender, but he's turned into a great defender. And then in the fourth quarter, he's become a dominant defender. So his growth has been amazing over the last three years.”

Philadelphia will face the Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the playoffs starting next weekend.