The NBA world was robbed of an elite matchup on Saturday when the Philadelphia 76ers visited the Denver Nuggets. It was expected to be battle of the Titans between Joel Embiid for Philadelphia and Nikola Jokic for Denver.
Shortly before the tip, Embiid was scratched due to left knee soreness. The big fella has been dealing with a left knee injury recently, and the medical staff didn’t like the way he was moving in warmups. That led to his late scratch. Anybody who watched the loss to the Indiana Pacers to begin the trip could see he was laboring a bit after tweaking the knee.
However, Embiid was not listed on the injury report. That is likely to trigger an investigation by the league due to the new player participation policy. The NBA wants its prime-time players to play in national TV games on the road.
Per Shams Charania on “Run it Back by FanDuel:
Joel Embiid did injure his knee in the previous game, but he wasn’t on the injury report the day before the game. He wasn’t on the injury report all day. He didn’t enter the injury report, I’m told, until fifteen minutes before tip off, and for sure that’s something that the league will have to review as Michael Malone said, and as every team in the league knows, the league will look into these situations. Especially, if it’s a last second scratch like this when the player wasn’t on the injury report … if he was on the injury report, I think the Sixers — this would be a different conversation. The league does tend to look into this situation. I would expect the same now.
"[Joel Embiid] didn't enter the injury report, I'm told, until fifteen minutes before tip off, and for sure that's something that the league will have to review."@ShamsCharania on Embiid sitting out against the Nuggets.
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— Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) January 29, 2024
When Charania referred to Nuggets coach Michael Malone, he was referring to Malone’s comments after the game saying the league will likely look into Embiid sitting out.
Coach Nick Nurse explained that the medicinal staff made the call to not play Embiid on Saturday. The goal all along has been to ensure he is ready for the playoffs. The Sixers have a bigger goal in mind when it comes to a title and they won’t get to where they want to go unless he is fully healthy. It appears that they will sit him in games such as Saturday’s if it means delivering a healthy Embiid to the playoffs.
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