Will Joel Embiid play against Trail Blazers? Injury update
The 76ers’ big man has come under fire after once again missing a date with Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets. The question now is, ‘Will he play on Monday?’
At 29-15, the Philadelphia 76ers are 3rd in the Eastern Conference which is to say they’re not terrible but they could certainly do better. Whether or not they can will largely depend on their man in the middle. Of course, if he can’t stay fit that could be a problem.
Will Joel Embiid play on Monday night?
It’s the question everybody wants answered and as things stand we probably won’t know until game time. What we do know is that the Philadelphia 76ers are due to play the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night and at this time Joel Embiid, who missed Saturday’s 111-105 road loss to the Denver Nuggets, has been listed as questionable ahead of the game. According to reports, Embiid’s current situation is the result of an aggravated knee which apparently, he suffered during Thursday’s 134-122 road loss vs the Indiana Pacers.
There have been questions about Joel Embiid’s status
Yes, there have. That game against the Nuggets that we mentioned above resulted in some heavy criticism from Nuggets head coach Michael Malone and perhaps rightly so. To be clear, Embiid wasn’t listed on Philadelphia’s injury report prior to Saturday’s game which he missed. Then, we’ve also got to consider the idea that just one game before the clash with the Pacers - the game in which he was reportedly injured - Embiid scored a career-high 70 points in what turned out to be a 133-123 home win over the San Antonio Spurs.
Now, this is where things get a little interesting, at least for those who believe in conspiracy theories. Currently leading the NBA in scoring with 36 points per game, Joel Embiid is the reining league MVP. Yet, this is the fourth consecutive season in which the 29-year-old has sat out a date with Denver, the team for whom Nikola Jokic plays, the man who won the MVP award the two seasons before Philly’s star. Could that be strategic? Is Joel Embiid hiding from ‘The Joker’? Who can say, but if nothing else what we know is that there is no guarantee that we will see Joel Embiid on Monday night.
What have the 76ers said?
As you can probably guess, the Philadelphia 76ers have dismissed any talk of conspiracies, with head coach Nick Nurse addressing the idea directly as he stated that there was nothing sinister behind Saturday’s decision to sit his star, but rather the advice of trainers who didn’t like how their player looked during pregame warmups. “He really wanted to play, and the medical team did not deem him fit to play today,” Nurse said following Saturday’s game. “That’s too bad for those fans. That’s too bad.” Tip-off on Monday night is set for 10:00 p.m. ET. Don’t miss it!