Joel Embiid is dealing with a sprained LCL in his his right knee that caused him to miss Saturday’s series-clinching win over the Nets. Embiid did not practice Tuesday, and his availability for the start of the second round is uncertain.
Frank Franklin II | AP photo
Click here to subscribe today or Login.
PHILADELPHIA — In no world should life be so uncertain for an NBA team after its most impressive first-round playoff performance. Yet inside the 76ers’ practice facility on Tuesday, there was a sense of concern from the Eastern Conference’s hottest team.
While the Sixers have the league’s most unstoppable player in presumptive MVP Joel Embiid, his availability for the start of the Eastern Conference semifinals remains unknown because of a right knee injury. A source confirmed that Embiid sprained his lateral collateral ligament. The recovery time for an LCL sprain is typically more than a week.
“There really isn’t any update yet,” Doc Rivers said of Embiid’s availability. “We won’t know anything for at least another couple of days probably before we can move forward.”
The Sixers are awaiting the winner of the first-round series between the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks.
Boston takes a 3-1 series advantage into Tuesday’s Game 5 at T.D. Garden. If the Celtics win Tuesday, the conference semifinals will start Saturday in Boston. If Atlanta wins, Game 1 won’t take place until Monday.
Is there a better chance Embiid will play in Game 1 if it’s pushed back to Monday? “I just don’t know the answer,” Rivers said. “So I’m not going to give an answer that I don’t know yet. “
Nor is Rivers 100% confident Embiid’s injury isn’t season-ending. “But I don’t think it is,” Rivers said.
Embiid watched film with teammates but didn’t participate in Tuesday’s practice. Following the session, he worked out in the weight room with Sixers head athletic trainer Kevin Johnson.
Even when he does return, the 7-foot-2, 280-pound center may have to wear a brace on his knee, a source confirmed. How will that affect his mobility? Will he dominate like he did before the injury? And will he be in shape?
Embiid suffered the injury in the third quarter of Thursday’s 102-97 Game 3 victory over the Nets at the Barclays Center. While attempting to block Cam Johnson’s shot, Embiid became tangled up with Johnson and both players fell underneath the basket. The six-time All-Star remained in the game, finishing with 14 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks.
However, he complained about pain in the back of his knee after the game, and doctors noticed he had some swelling.
An MRI Friday in Philadelphia revealed that Embiid had suffered a knee sprain. As a result, he was sidelined in Saturday’s Game 4 of the first-round series. And assuming the semifinals begin this upcoming Saturday, that would be nine days after the injury.
However, the thought was Embiid would need to be healthy and play at an elite level for the Sixers to have a deep postseason run.
Embiid won his second consecutive scoring title this season, averaging a league-best 33.1 points per game. He also finished seventh in rebounds (10.2) and blocks (1.7).
The Celtics won three of this season’s four meetings against the Sixers. In their lone win on April 4, Embiid needed to finish with 52 points, 13 rebounds, six assists and two blocks in a 103-101 decision against a Boston squad without standouts Jaylen Brown and Robert Williams III.
The Sixers will have to rely heavily on James Harden, Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris in the second round.
Harris, the team’s fourth option, has been solid when involved in the Sixers’ game plan. However, Harden struggled through 34.3% shooting in the first-round series. And Maxey has a career average of 8.4 points on 34.0% shooting versus the Boston, the expected semifinal opponent.
But this won’t be the first time Embiid has missed time in the playoffs. Of the Sixers’ six consecutive postseason appearances, Embiid was only healthy in 2020.
Last season against the Toronto Raptors, Embiid suffered a right orbital fracture and a mild concussion during the Sixers’ series-clinching Game 6 victory in Toronto. That injury occurred when the Raptors’ Pascal Siakam inadvertently elbowed Embiid in the face while driving to the basket late in the fourth quarter.
Embiid, who was already was playing through a torn ligament in his right thumb, missed Games 1 and 2 of the conference semifinals against the Miami Heat.
Then in 2021, Embiid suffered a small lateral meniscus tear in Game 4 of the Sixers’ first-round series against the Washington Wizards. The injury occurred when he took a hard fall on his backside after Robin Lopez blocked his driving layup with 4 minutes, 43 seconds left in the first quarter.
He played with left knee tendinitis in 2019 and had a left orbital fracture and concussion in 2018. He missed the final 10 games of the 2017-18 regular season and first two games of a first-round series against the Miami Heat after suffering a fractured orbital bone in his left eye. Upon his return, Embiid wore a protective face mask.
But Rivers thinks the Sixers are better equipped to deal with Embiid’s absence than in seasons past. They were 11-5 in games he missed in the regular season. And their 96-88 Game 4 victory on Saturday came without Embiid. They were the NBA’s lone team to sweep in the first round.
“Each year we’ve gotten better when guys are injured,” said Rivers, who’s in his third season as Sixers coach. “The first year in the first half of that year, we struggled, I remember. Then we started winning a couple of games when one of our key guys were out. Last year we were better. This year, we’re way better.
“So that’s what gives me confidence.”
TONIGHTS GAMES
(AP) — The Milwaukee Bucks, Memphis Grizzlies and Cleveland Cavaliers are hoping there’s truly no place like home.
The teams that earned home-court advantage in the first round of the NBA playoffs risk having their seasons end Wednesday night on their home floors. Of the four games on tap, only Sacramento is guaranteed of playing on among the four Game 5s on tap.
“We’ve just got to go home and win a game,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “We’ve talked about it in the locker room. We’ve got to go to Milwaukee and win a game. Life is not complicated. That’s what we’ve got to go do.”
Milwaukee has never rallied from a 3-1 deficit in 10 previous tries. Now the Bucks are trying to avoid becoming the fourth No. 1 overall seed in the NBA playoffs — in a format used since 1984 — to go out in Round 1, joining Chicago (2012), Dallas in 2007 and Seattle in 1994.
The Grizzlies earned the Western Conference’s No. 2 seed by posting the NBA’s best home record since Golden State in 2016-17. Memphis also has never rallied from a 3-1 deficit in three previous chances. Grizzlies guard Desmond Bane said they have to protect that home floor where they won 35 games.
“We got two opportunities there,” said Bane, who promised Memphis would bring the “right mentality” if playing Game 6 on Friday night in Los Angeles.
LeBron James and the Lakers, who earned the No. 7 seed in the play-in tournament, can earn some rest for the next round by finishing the Grizzlies in Memphis. James said the Lakers remain underdogs for how they played during the regular season with a close-out game the hardest of any series.
“It’s the most tiring one, it’s the most brutal one, and we’d better be ready for it,” James said.
Cavaliers All-Star Donovan Mitchell knows only too well how quickly a 3-1 lead can evaporate. He played with Utah when the Jazz blew that lead to Denver in 2020.
“They have to beat us on our home floor, and we’ve got to protect,” Mitchell said. “For us, it’s Game 5. That’s it. I’m not worried about anything after that.”