It’s almost time for some real basketball!
But first, one more preseason bout. The Philadelphia 76ers will host the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday evening at Xfinity Mobile Arena in the team’s preseason finale. As exhibition games come to a close, most of the focus is on the status of the Sixers’ players and who is ready for the regular season to get underway, so let’s dig into that.
Joel Embiid did not participate in the team’s practice on Thursday, but that was a planned day off for the center,
per the team. Whether he will play Friday night in the preseason finale will be determined day-of, according to Sixers head coach Nick Nurse.
“I think we’ll know tomorrow,” Nurse said at practice Thursday. “I mean, I think there’s still that same chance that he will, but we’ll know tomorrow.”
Paul George also continues to progress in his injury recovery, participating in live 5-on-5 action for the first time at Thursday’s practice after participating in 3-on-3 Wednesday. Nurse was not definitive on George’s prospective status for Friday night nor next week’s season opener, but it did sound like PG is not quite at the point yet where they expect him to play in the preseason finale.
“Yesterday was his first day live and … today was a short amount of 5-on-5, so we just have to keep waiting,” Nurse said on Thursday.
ESPN’s Shams Charania has put out a report apparently from “people in Paul George’s camp” that the forward is not expected to be suiting up for the Sixers’ regular season opening night on Oct. 22 when they take on the Boston Celtics. Whether or not that turns out to be true, we just have to keep waiting… like Nurse said.
Charania also reported that the team is “hopeful” for Embiid to be ready for both the preseason finale and the team’s regular season opener.
(Yes… I’d assume the team is hopeful for that. Not sure what information this report is supposed to add, for whatever it’s worth.)
Moving on to the rest of the team, Jared McCain (UCL surgery) remains out and Trendon Watford (hamstring tightness) is still seemingly a bit away from being ready to play. That being said, everyone else — including Quentin Grimes and VJ Edgecombe — are expected to be available as of time of writing.
“We need to get … the main guys playing as long and as much together as we can [Friday],” Nurse said. “That would be goal No. 1. Not quite sure how that’s going to look yet until probably the pregame presser [Friday].”
How that ends up actually coming together, we will just have to wait and see. We will keep you posted as more definitive information on player availability for the finale becomes available.
Ready or not, it’s time to wrap up the 2025-26 preseason. The Sixers and Timberwolves will tip off in South Philadelphia at 7 p.m. ET.
Game Details
When: Friday, October 17, 7:00 pm ET
Where: Xfinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia, PA
Watch: NBC Sports Philadelphia, NBA TV
Follow: @LibertyBallers
