The Philadelphia 76ers announced that star center Joel Embiid will miss Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers as he continues to manage swelling in his left knee. Embiid was also ruled out for the Sixers’ Friday night game against the Nets, and these two absences will bring his total of missed games this season to 12.
All of those absences have been due to what the Sixers have called “left knee management,” as the team takes a highly cautious approach to its star big man’s playing time this season. It’s been unclear how Embiid picked up the injury, as he played during Team USA’s gold-medal journey in the Olympics this summer, but he wasn’t a participant in training camp or the preseason and has played in just four games so far.
Prior to the start of the season, Embiid mentioned that he didn’t see himself playing in both games of back-to-backs for the rest of his career, as he tries to prioritize being healthy for the playoffs. He’s since walked that back a bit and admitted that he was trolling with that response, however it’s obvious that the Sixers won’t rush the dominant big man to play if he’s dealing with things like this swelling in his left knee.
With Embiid missing another game, it will once again leave the Sixers shorthanded as Paul George recently returned to the injured list after hyperextending his left knee for the second time in a month. George is expected to be out for Sunday’s game against the Clippers as well.
George should be back soon and, while they’d surely like to have both of their stars back healthy for an extended period of time, Philly is entering a softer part of their schedule where they could fare well without having one or both of these guys out there. After Sunday’s game, seven of their next 12 matchups are against teams with losing records, including two meetings with the Hornets, as well as meetings with the Jazz, Trail Blazers and Spurs. It won’t be a cakewalk to beat all those teams, especially if Embiid and or George miss extended time, but after starting the season 2-12, this is the part of the season where Philadelphia can make up some ground.
If the Sixers reach the end of December and haven’t gotten closer to .500 in an incredibly weak conference, then some serious conversations will need to be had about this team’s outlook for the rest of the season.
