The Sixers released their injury report for their upcoming battle against the Toronto Raptors, and Joel Embiid and LeBron James are both listed as questionable. Embiid is once again listed with plantar fasciitis management in his right foot and LeBron with the lower back management that he’s also been listed with all season.
The good news is there doesn’t seem to be any additional designation for Embiid after he turned his left ankle in an awkward moment in their loss to the Celtics. Embiid didn’t
say much about it after the game other than he just turned it and is feeling good. The aforementioned play is below, please excuse the caption.
With that being said, Embiid has struggled so far this season, and has especially looked rough in games since the plantar fasciitis popped up on the injury report about a week and a half ago. In his last three games, two of which were losses, he’s averaged 13.3 points per game and has shot 9-of-37 from the field. He’s also looked noticeably worse on defense in that time period as well.
It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to get Embiid off of his feet for a couple days, but it’s tough to do so when the team has lost two of it’s last three and has played it’s worst basketball since the start of the season.
It only gets trickier if LeBron also isn’t able to play against Toronto. This is the first game LeBron has appeared on the injury report so far this season that is not a back-to-back. After the Sixers play the Raptors, they’re not in action until Nov. 15 when they host Indiana.
The Sixers could be very shorthanded in the frontcourt against the Raptors as Adem Bona will miss his fourth straight game with a cervical spine sprain, the team has yet to provide a further update on him. Dominick Barlow remains out, still yet to make his season debut with what is now listed as a lower back stress reaction.
On the other hand, Toronto will be playing Philadelphia on the second night of a back-to-back. They don’t have to submit their injury report quite yet, but Scottie Barnes has missed their last three games with a groin strain. The team also announced that Kawhi Leonard, who’s been out since the second game of the season, will miss at least another week, so the Sixers definitely won’t see him.
