Brown offers no encouragement on return of Embiid

PHILADELPHIA » Already having missed the first two games of the NBA’s first playoff round, Joel Embiid is moving closer to missing the third … and more.

Before Game 2 Monday against the Miami Heat, Brett Brown shared no word of progress from his training staff on Embiid’s healing left orbital bone. And since the Sixers’ coach hinted at only a non-contact practice scheduled for Tuesday, that would leave the AllStar center running low on available conditioning time for Game 3 Thursday night in Miami.

“Same old, same old,” Brown said. “Just moving on. He does his workout. He really hasn’t done anything like feeling a body. We’re slowly trying to move into the script, the five-onzero stage. But to have any announcement on Game 3, that’s not going to happen because we don’t know. We’re just moving along.”

Embiid declined to answer questions before the game. He has not played since a March 28 on-court collision with Markelle Fultz that left him with a concussion and a fractured lefteye bone. He has recovered from the concussion and will need to wear a mask whenever he does return to fullcontact basketball. But that has yet to be added to his recovery agenda.

“I don’t think anybody is ‘practicing’ anymore,” said Brown, reflecting the lesser-contact, off-day, postseason trend. “Really, you’re just thankful to be healthy. There’s ‘low-minute’ workouts, you keep up for low-minute guys.”

Brown plans to assemble the Sixers in Camden Tuesday for shooting and shell drills, “generating a sweat in a productive way.” Embiid is likely to participate in some of that. “We’re moving to that,” Brown said. “He’s shot a lot. But as far as practices or ‘feeling’ somebody, that hasn’t happened. And I don’t know that it will happen (Tuesday.)”

If not, that would compromise Embiid’s prep time for Game 3.

“I don’t know,” Brown said. “I understand the question. I don’t know. I’m just moving along and coaching with what I know what I have. And right now, I don’t have Joel.”

Embiid worked with the Sixers before the game, making plenty of long, if un-defended, shots. The Sixers started Amir Johnson at center in Game 1 and turned to Ersan Ilyasova at the five spot Monday.

“I can’t wait to get Joel back,” Brown said. “He is to me the difference-maker. Joel Embiid changes the dynamics in many ways for this team.”

The question, though, is how quickly Embiid can make that difference, given that he will have been out of action for nearly a month whenever he does return. Game 4 is Saturday in Miami.

“There will be a re-introduction of him back to the team,” Brown said. “How do I play him? That’s fair. I am not sure really what that’s going to look like. We’ll judge that more once we can see what we are actually able to do with him and how soon we can do it. But right now I can’t give you a perfect answer of what that looks like.”

Clearly, the Sixers are in no rush to find that out.

“That’s a partnership with Joel and the medical people,” Brown said. “It’s a collaborative thing with the bottom line being what is best for his health. It has nothing to do with what we did in a game and that we might have to rush him. It’s not that. The bottom line is what is best for Joel Embiid’s health.”

*** The Sixers are so deep in shooting that they apparently have become the first team in history to solve at least half of sport.

“Offensively, we’re not really worried about scoring,” Ben Simmons said. “It’s more defense. For us, we have to play good defense.”

Simmons has been a remarkably successful passer. One reason is that whenever he does pass, it lands in the hands of a capable shooter.

“For me, I just try to find whoever is open,” Simmons said. “If not, it’s take it to the lane and score. Being more aggressive, for me, will get my guys open shots.”

*** The Sixers’ uniforms included a black stripe on the sleeve with a “15” in a white star in honor of franchise great Hal Greer. The Sixers announced the death of their all-time leading scorer Monday.

“We know about just the way everybody has played and represented the Sixers,” Simmons said. “They played hard all the time. And Philly is known as a hard city. And we definitely try to take that on the floor and represent Philadelphia that way.”

Greer’s No. 15 is retired by the Sixers. There is a small statue in his honor, among those honoring other franchise greats, at the practice center.

“It’s one of the cool things that I just pinch myself about this job,” Brown said. “We legitimately have a history. And there is a culture. And you look at banners and statues, and Wilt Chamberlain and Charles Barkley and Julius Erving and Allen Iverson. You go on and on.

“I had a chance to meet Hal Greer and his family. A 10-time All-Star. A top-50 player. He was a graceful man. He was class. He was a gentleman. The passing of Hal Greer, we mourn with his family. He had a heck of a life. I feel honored to have had a chance to meet him. He will be fondly remembered.”