Nuggets' Nikola Jokic, 76ers' Joel Embiid named Players of the Month

A pair of All-NBA centers have earned Player of the Month honors for January, with Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic winning the Western Conference award, while Joel Embiid of the Sixers was named the winner in the Eastern Conference (Twitter link).

Jokic appeared in all 17 of the Nuggets’ January games and led the team to an 11-6 record. He averaged 26.2 PPG, 13.4 RPG and 8.9 APG in 33.5 minutes per contest, posting a scorching-hot shooting line of .596/.420/.881. Jokic earned Player of the Week honors on Jan. 24, but this is his first Player of the Month award this season.

Embiid, meanwhile, is the East’s Player of the Month for a second straight time, having also won the award in December. He appeared in 14 games, including 11 Sixers victories, in January and averaged an eye-popping 34.0 PPG to go along with 10.8 RPG, 5.1 APG, and 1.5 BPG in 32.1 minutes per game.

Jokic and Embiid are firmly in contention for this year’s Most Valuable Player award after finishing first and second, respectively, in voting a year ago. Embiid’s Sixers are currently 31-19, just one game out of first place in the East. Jokic’s Nuggets rank sixth in the West at 28-22, but are only 1.5 games out of fourth place.

According to the league (Twitter links), the other Player of the Month nominees were Devin Booker, Luka Doncic, Jaren Jackson, Ja Morant, Dejounte Murray, Anfernee Simons and Karl-Anthony Towns in the West, and Jimmy Butler, DeMar DeRozan, Darius Garland, Pascal Siakam, Jayson Tatum and Trae Young in the East.