Sixers All-NBA center Joel Embiid sat out the second half of Philadelphia’ 116-91 blowout victory over the Bulls Wednesday with mild right calf tightness, but the team expects him to suit up for the Sixers’ next game Friday, per Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link).
Rich Hoffman of The Athletic details how the Embiid injury could affect how Philadelphia handles its final 10 games of the 2022/23 season. The Sixers’ other top scorer, point guard James Harden, sat out the win with a sore left Achilles.
Hoffman notes that Philadelphia is prioritizing postseason health over regular season wins down the home stretch, a strategy that could cost it the East’s second seed and home court advantage in the second round of the playoffs should it match up with the Celtics.
“We’ve gone into the playoffs two years in a row with injuries,” head coach Doc Rivers said in a postgame presser. “We all know that you don’t win in the playoffs when your key guys aren’t healthy, period. So, we’re going to do whatever we can to be healthy.”
Here are a few more injury-related notes from around the league:
- Wizards power forward Kyle Kuzma and shooting guard Bradley Beal will both miss Washington’s game Friday against the lowly Spurs, reports Josh Robbins of The Athletic (Twitter link). Kuzma is dealing with a sprained right ankle, while the oft-injured Beal is currently grappling with left knee soreness.
- Deep-bench Nets big man Ben Simmons is currently only engaging in individual workouts and not yet working out with Brooklyn as he continues to rehabilitate his sore left knee, per Brian Lewis of The New York Post (Twitter link). Head coach Jacque Vaughn was noncommittal when he was asked if the team would be able to ramp up Simmons before the end of the regular season.
- Raptors forward Scottie Barnes, big man Precious Achiuwa, and shooting guard Gary Trent Jr. did not practice with Toronto on Thursday and are questionable Friday in a winnable game against the rebuilding Pistons, according to Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca (via Twitter). Grange observes (Twitter link) that Barnes is exerting caution with his ailing left wrist. Achiuwa is dealing with a hamstring injury, while Trent has an elbow ailment.
- When veteran Celtics combo forward Danilo Gallinari tore his ACL six months ago, Boston quickly ruled him out for the regular season. Though it still is fairly unlikely, Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston writes that Gallinari is keeping the door ajar for a potential return for the postseason. “Playoffs, it’s still in my head,” Gallinari said. “A lot of steps that need to be done before you play an actual game. And even maybe after all those steps, you are not ready for a playoff game because when you don’t play the whole season and then be ready to play a playoff game is not easy for anybody, not just body-wise but mentally-wise. But like I said, it might happen. So we’ll see.”