He might have played the most minutes of the season to date, but the team is still being cautious with him.
The Sixers released their injury report ahead of their matchup against the Brooklyn Nets Sunday,
and there was notable addition.
Joel Embiid has been ruled out due to injury management with his left knee. This was the same reason the team gave when he missed his first game last week against the Orlando Magic.
This shouldn’t come as a huge concern as it appears the team is being more cautious with them than just holding him out of back-to-backs. While the team hasn’t said that the minutes restriction has changed, Embiid has played his most minutes of the season in each of the last two games. He played 23 minutes in an overtime win vs. the Wizards and 25 minutes in a loss versus the Celtics.
Tony Jones of The Athletic posited a decent theory of why and when the Sixers might be choosing to give the Big Fella some rest. It would certainly explain why he played against the Washington Wizards but sat against the Orlando Magic.
So the Sixers will be down Embiid in their contest against Brooklyn, but should have every other available Sixer who’s seen the court so far. Jared McCain and Paul George continue to put in work in practice, but are still out for this game, Dominick Barlow is out as well as he recovers from a procedure to fix a right elbow laceration. Johni Broome popped up on the report for the first time, he is unavailable for the Nets game as he’s on a G-League assignment with the Delaware Blue Coats.
