The Philadelphia 76ers suffered a fourth straight defeat on Tuesday with a 119-107 loss to the Golden State Warriors, but the focus is the health of Joel Embiid.
After missing two games due to left knee soreness, the big fella returned, but he didn’t look great. He had 14 points on 5-for-18 shooting with seven rebounds and eight turnovers. His limited mobility was alarming. He couldn’t attack the double teams off the dribble, and he didn’t appear to trust his explosion at all.
His situation worsened toward the end of the game. Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga fell on Embiid’s knee with 4:03 left in the fourth. Embiid limped off the court, ending his night.
“So obviously, he got landed on,” coach Nick Nurse told reporters on Tuesday after the loss. “They’re going to do an MRI tonight or (Wednesday). It’s kind of unrelated to what’s been bothering him. So we just wait on that. You guys saw that play. He kind of got landed on.”
Embiid played 30 minutes on Tuesday and it wasn’t a great 30 minutes. He looked nowhere near 100% and looked as if he was trying to play through pain to be on the floor for his team. He deserves credit for that, but he wasn’t at his best on either end of the floor.
“Obviously, medical cleared him,” Nurse added. “Joel, obviously, is a big part of that. He said he was feeling good. He’s more a little rusty. He hadn’t been on the court for five days, but he said he felt good.”
The Sixers will wait to see what the MRI says as they hope for good news for their MVP leader. The Sixers have one game left on this trip: the Utah Jazz on Thursday.
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