Embiid’s odd absence not easily put to rest

PHILADELPHIA >> The 76ers rested Joel Embiid for two full seasons, stressing that it would give him greater long-term value.

They’ve often rested him in the second of back-to-back games, calling it load management. They have had him on minutes restrictions, reasoning breathers were concessions to high sports science.

Then Embiid, who has been battling a sore knee for weeks, played in the All-Star Game over the weekend, and Brett Brown characterized the activity as therapeutic.

How? How is playing suddenly the best way to manage knee pain? And if it is, why didn’t Embiid play Thursday against the visiting Miami Heat, and why won’t he play for at least another week?

“Let me explain,” Brown said, before the game. “When we say ‘time off,’ we don’t mean sitting in a chair and playing video games. That doesn’t help you. That could equal ‘rest.’ But that’s not the rest we are talking about. You can rest and do active things in a weight room to strengthen the area.

“And so, sitting in a chair and doing video-games-rest vs. not playing and going into a weight room and resting while you are not running up and down the floor, is our version of ‘rest.’ That environment will help him.”

Thursday, Brown made the point that the very All-Star break activity of playing 23 minutes in a lowstress game was better for Embiid’s aching lower-body annoyance than complete time away from basketball. Not as clear was whether that also went for him dancing in an AllStar Weekend karaoke contest.

Brown recognizes the potential for the mangled message.

“I get that,” Brown said. “I get the optics side of it. But I feel that to connect the dots to it, exacerbating an injury is wrong.”

Beginning Saturday afternoon, when Portland visits for a 1 o’clock start, the Sixers will have just 23 remaining games. High on their lists of tasks: Getting Embiid to cut down on diving and other plays likely to put his physical well-being at higher risk.

“Playing at 7-foot-2 and 275 pounds is different from all us mortals,” Brown said. “His awareness, his understanding of his body, along with his competitive desire and desire to be with his teammates, there is a toggle. He would be able to tell you that he has learned a lot. And he has been managing himself well. He is doing the work necessary to keep his body ready.

“How do we monitor it? I think that will be a deeper discussion with Jo and the medical staff.” •••

The Sixers-Heat game was the final scheduled, regular-season Wells Fargo Center appearance of Miami’s likely first-ballot Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade. He will retire after this, his 15th NBA season.

“I got to play with D-Wade in Chicago,” Jimmy Butler said. “I have been on vacation with him in the summertime. That’s my guy. He taught me a lot. He set the tone of hard work, being an underdog, getting things done. That’s my brother. And I am appreciative of him.”

Wade, 37, was averaging 14.0 points over the Heat’s first 46 games.

“I have been in the league a long time and I look at him and I am just so respectful of his grace and his class,” Brown said. “He has carried himself with tremendous grace. He has been an ambassador all over the world for our sport. And I just think when you can live like he has lived and played like he has played, with that sort of grace and longevity, what else is there, really?”

Wade has played in 13 All-Star Games. He brought 22,725 career points into play Thursday.

“I know as a high school player coming up, I watched him play,” Tobias Harris said. “He was one of the best two-guards ever to play the game. Even to this year, he is very productive in the way he plays. He’s adapted his game. He’s a legend.”