Why is Joel Embiid not playing against the Boston Celtics today, Feb. 27? When will he be back?

The Philadelphia 76ers are set for a primetime bout with the league leading Boston Celtics tonight from the TD Garden. Philly has been sliding down the standings over the last couple weeks with Joel Embiid on the bench and there may not be an end to their suffering in sight as he continues to rehab his injured knee.

The wait continues

The league’s reigning MVP was already injured going into the Sixers game against Golden State on the 6th of February. He gutted it out that game, trying to help his team keep pace with this Celtics team while simultaneously trying to reach the obligatory 65 games needed to be eligible for the MVP trophy and First-Team All NBA for a second straight year.

He played in that game with a brace on that already banged up knee, and things went from bad to worse for him and the Sixers late in that game when he hit the deck trying to recover a loose ball. Johnathan Kuminga dove for the loose ball as well and landed on Embiid’s injured knee sending him limping off to the locker room, and the Cameroonian center hasn’t played since.

He had surgery on the meniscus of his left knee and was orginally schedule to be reevaluated in four weeks time. That would have been some time next week, but the Sixers have delayed that estimate to six to eight weeks which is troubling news for their playoff positioning.

Embiid was in the hunt for a second straight MVP award this season, as the league’s leading scorer with 35.3 points to go along with his 11.3 rebounds and 5.7 assists. Since his injury the Sixers have plummeted down the Eastern Conference standings, from 2nd all the way to 5th and are now closer to the Play-In (1.5 games ahead of Orlando in 8th) than they are to the first place Celtics (12 games ahead of Philly).

After the rescheduling of his evaluation, the earliest he can return is mid-March, and that’s if he even returns this season. If and when the news comes that their big man can make a comeback, the Sixers will go back to being one of the most dangerous teams in the East. The questions are, will he be back? When will that be? And where will the Sixers be in the East after Embiid’s long spell on the sidelines?