The Philadelphia 76ers are off on Tuesday, resting up after starting the week on a back-to-back, losing one and winning one against the Toronto Raptors. On Wednesday, they’ll return to South Philadelphia after a week on the road to host the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are sitting in seventh in the Eastern Conference as of Tuesday evening.
The Sixers posted their early injury report on Tuesday night, listing Joel Embiid (left knee injury management; left adductor soreness), Paul George (left knee injury management)
and rookie VJ Edgecombe (left adductor contusion) as probable for Wednesday’s contest.
Embiid and George have both found themselves on the injury reports as of late. With them treating Embiid’s status on a very day-to-day basis, him being listed hardly comes as a surprise. For what it’s worth, Embiid has played in seven of the Sixers’ last eight games. The only game he missed in that stint was half of the back-to-back that started the week. George was a more surprise addition to the injury report this week after being a very late scratch for Sunday’s contest (after starting lineups were announced) and appeared as questionable for Monday for left knee injury management. PG ended up playing in the latter.
Edgecombe’s left adductor contusion might come as a bit more of a surprise. The rookie played over 33 minutes on Monday night, putting up 15 points on 5-for-6 three-point shooting. A few minutes into the fourth period, however, you could see Edgecombe seemingly dealing with some discomfort below the belt. With about eight minutes left in the period, the rookie was subbed out and was a bit gimpy going to the bench, holding the affected body part. Him and Nick Nurse were shown on the broadcast sharing a quick word and a laugh, so one can only guess that perhaps the rookie took a hit to a sensitive area. Edgecombe returned to the floor about two minutes later, but only played another two minutes before being subbed out for the last four of the game.
We will keep you posted on their definitive statuses as the information becomes available.
For the Cavaliers on Monday, Dean Wade is out with a left knee contusion and Max Strus remains out as he continues to recover from foot surgery.
The Sixers and Cavs tip off from South Philadelphia at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
