Sore knee knocks Embiid to sidelines
CAMDEN, N.J. >> As they have had to do in every season of his fascinating career, the Sixers will have to play some late-season games without Joel Embiid.
According to the team, the All-Star center “is experiencing left knee soreness and will undergo treatment involving physical therapy and load management.” Embiid has been ruled out of a 7 o’clock game Thursday night against the visiting Miami Heat.
An MRI Tuesday revealed “no structural damage,” according to the Sixers, who said Embiid will be re-evaluated in “approximately one week.” That likely would leave Embiid unavailable for games Thursday, Saturday against visiting Portland, Monday in New Orleans and likely next Thursday in Oklahoma City.
If cleared by then, Embiid would be available for a March 2 visit from the world champion Golden State Warriors, the most anticipated remaining game on the Sixers’ regular-season schedule.
“We just have to step up a little more,” Tobias Harris said Wednesday, after practice. “Obviously losing our guy, and what he presents on the floor offensively and defensively, is a big loss for a week. But it’s a next-guy-up mentality.”
That next player, at least Thursday, will be Boban Marjanovic, who will start at center against the Heat.
“We will adapt to how Boban is playing and go from there,” Harris said. “It’s the same focus: To come out, win games and get better as a team.”
In his fifth NBA season, Embiid has never finished an 82-game schedule healthy. There is no immediate indication, however, that his latest setback will reach that level of crisis. He did, however, miss a game with a knee issue Dec. 30.
“I’ve been aware of it for a few weeks now,” Brett Brown said. “Evidently, it reached a stage where he just felt uncomfortable with it. And so he had an MRI on it. It’s a little bit of tendinitis. It’s stuff that is quite common, actually. But we will miss him for a week and then we will reevaluate.”
Oddly, whatever pain Embiid has been experiencing in recent weeks did not prevent him from participating in the NBA All-Star Game Sunday.
“I don’t think that affected him, I really don’t,” Brown said. “It’s a natural dot-connector. But it shouldn’t be. In fact, when you speak to the medical people, one of the things that exacerbates it is time off. And maybe time did more harm than good.
“But the bottom line is that nobody needs to read into anything here. This is an NBA athlete who has some soreness in his knee, that has had an MRI, and we all should move on. We’ll miss him, obviously, but it is nothing that isn’t completely pointed toward keeping him ready and especially keeping him ready when it matters most, at the end of the year.”
While that occurs, the 7-3 Marjanovic, with his 7-10 wingspan, will fill in. Brown shared that Jonah Bolden, not Amir Johnson, ran at center with the second unit at practice Wednesday.
In four games since joining the Sixers in the trade with the Clippers that yielded Harris, Marjanovic has averaged 13 minutes and seven points.
“Everybody is like a team here,” Marjanovic said. “Everybody supports each other. When there is a problem, everybody will jump in for everybody. This is a good time for me to get some minutes. But I feel bad because our main player will not play. Hopefully, he will be back soon.”
Embiid missed his first two NBA seasons with a broken foot, and was limited by a knee injury to 31 games in his third season. Last season, which ended with him sidelined by a facial fracture, he played 63 regular-season games, though he did participate in eight playoff games. This season, he has played in 54 of the Sixers’ 58 games.
While he is out, others will have to make up for his 27.3 points per game.
“We’ll go about things the same way,” Jimmy Butler said. “We have to pick it up a little bit. This is the final stretch.”