PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers are in a tough situation heading into Tuesday’s matchup with the defending champion Denver Nuggets.
The Sixers knocked off the Houston Rockets at home on Monday, 124-115, in Joel Embiid’s return from injury. He scored 41 points on 12-for-21 shooting with 10 rebounds in 31:16 of playing time.
The goal now is to have the big fella ready to face the Nuggets. The defending champions did not play on Monday, so they are entering the contest rested. Even though the Sixers had to play a matinee, coach Nick Nurse expects Embiid to play on the second night of a back-to-back.
“Yes,” Nurse confirmed. “As far as I know as of now. I have nothing otherwise.”
The knee injury is something to keep an eye on with the big fella. The swelling comes and goes, which is what delayed his return.
“It’s been swelling for a while,” Embiid said of his knee. “We just want to make sure that we knew what was going on. This is also the perfect time because the goal is to get ready for April, May, June. So we just want to make sure that we knew what was happening first and also making sure that we look at the long run and get ready for what’s coming next.”
The current national narrative around Embiid is he ducks good teams. There have been big games he has missed due to injuries or illness, and the national media has singled him out. Some believed he would play against Houston, so he could duck the Nuggets on Tuesday.
Embiid isn’t worried about any of that.
“I saw it, but I mean, you can’t control if I get sick, and I got the flu or whatever,” Embiid started. “I can’t control that. You can’t control the knee. It’s gonna swell up. It just happened that it was against New Orleans and Boston. I got the flu. Obviously, a lot of guys on the team had it.”
Obviously, Embiid and the Sixers have bigger goals in mind rather than having him ready for some regular season games. The Sixers want the big fella ready for when the games matter most in April and beyond. They have their eyes on the Larry O’Brien trophy.
“Like I said the goal is should be ready for the playoffs,” Embiid finished. “If I can’t meet the criteria of 65 games and if I can’t play against some of the best teams in the league, then as long as I’m ready to be dominant when it gets to that time in April, then that’s all I care about.”
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