January 23, 2017
Considering that the Sixers go from an above average team to a bottom feeder the second Joel Embiid steps off the court and lays down on the baseline, the upcoming back-to-back (home against the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday, at Milwaukee on Wednesday) ought to be pretty tough.
After being evaluated over the weekend, the injury that kept Embiid out of crunch time in Friday night’s win over Portland is being classified as a left-knee contusion. The rookie of the year frontrunner didn’t go through any portion of Monday’s practice but did receive treatment.
Embiid is listed as doubtful for Tuesday’s game against Los Angeles and won’t make the trip to Milwaukee, as the Sixers aren’t deviating from holding the 7’2” center out on the second half of back-to-backs.
If you listen to Brett Brown, though, it sounds like the “doubtful” tag is a lot closer to “out.”
“We’re going to be without him tomorrow and in Milwaukee and we’ll go from there,” Brett Brown said.
Embiid seems fine pic.twitter.com/pCXAnXTXva
— Bob Cooney (@BobCooney76) January 23, 2017
UPDATE: Per Woj, Embiid will be back for Friday night's nationally televised game against the Houston Rockets.
Joel Embiid, who'll miss Clippers/Bucks games w/ left knee bruise, expected to return vs. Houston Friday, league sources tell @TheVertical
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) January 23, 2017
Embiid did surface after practice and did some light shooting in moccasins. When asked if the decision to hold Embiid out was simply precautionary, Brown affirmed that it was.
In the short term, this means more minutes for Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel... and probably two losses for a team that has won eight out its last 11 games. Two of those three losses came without Embiid.
“It definitely hurts the team, how can we spin it any other way?” Brown said. “It hurts the team, but like anything, now you’re going to look at Nerlens and Jahlil. This is fantastic for those two. It could prove on some things that Richaun [Holmes] sees daylight a little bit.”
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
