January 31, 2022
Sixers center Joel Embiid will miss Monday's meeting with the upstart Memphis Grizzlies, with the team deciding to give him the night off for planned rest, a Sixers official told reporters on Monday morning.
Embiid, who had appeared in 21 straight games since returning to the lineup on November 27th against the Minnesota Timberwolves, has been a more constant fixture in the lineup this season despite banging knees with Jonas Valanciunas on the first night of the season. Availability has been the one major knock against him during his career, something Embiid is well aware of and has kept in mind over the past two seasons after changing his off-court approach following their bubble playoff loss.
"The goal was just to make sure my body felt great and to be able to be available every single day, every single game," Embiid said following a recent 50-point outing vs. the Orlando Magic. "That's something I need to keep on working [on], and I'm still getting better."
An improved base of fitness has allowed Embiid to go on what is undoubtedly the best extended run of his career over the last two months. Embiid sits second in the league in scoring, tied with LeBron James and trailing only the ailing Kevin Durant, and he has served as Philadelphia's do-it-all hub on both ends of the floor, playmaking and rim-protecting on top of carrying the scoring load each and every night.
Based on how he has talked recently, a rest night for Embiid nonetheless felt inevitable, though it's curious that the Sixers decided to pick a game against the Grizzlies for Embiid to take off. Saturday's outing against a woeful Sacramento Kings team felt like a more logical game for Embiid to miss, with the Grizzlies posing a much stiffer challenge and (selfishly for us observers) a much more exciting game, pitting Embiid vs. another All-Star starter in Ja Morant.
"I'm sure we're going to rest him at some point when he needs it," Doc Rivers said following last Thursday's win over the Lakers, "But I think this has been a great teacher for him, for us. It's a form of leadership, but we still have to be smart in this as well."
Evidently, Embiid and the team landed on Monday night's game as the time to pull the trigger. Given that the decision to rest is a collaborative process between Embiid and various important figures with the team, it's fair enough to assume Embiid spoke up and said it was about time.
For the Sixers who are left, that leaves them in the same position they were in against the Grizzlies the last time they played Memphis — missing the franchise player. Embiid was a late scratch before that game, a 35-point beatdown Memphis handed Philly without the services of Morant, the team's creative engine. That would seem to spell doom for the Sixers on Monday night, with Memphis on a three-game winning streak and Morant in an insane run of form. The Grizzlies' rising star has dropped 30+ points in each of the last six games, including 41 in a road win over San Antonio and 38 in the thin air out in Denver.
The only good news here is that the Sixers are missing Embiid in this one because they planned it, and not because they're having to scramble to cover for his absence. All indications are that the Sixers will have him back on the floor later this week, and if nothing else, it's a showcase game for the rest of the guys on the roster with a little over a week to go before the trade deadline. You never know who might be watching.
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