Joel Embiid’s fantastic season has been slowed down by injuries, but he might’ve ended up making matters worse by trying to play through them.
According to Sam Amick of The Athletic, Embiid, who injured his left knee in Tuesday night’s loss to the Warriors, only played in the game because of the “scrutiny” he’s faced.
Amick reported that Embiid, 29, has been dealing with soreness in that knee all season.
The 2022-23 NBA MVP missed back-to-back games against the Nuggets and Trail Blazers on Saturday and Monday, and when he sat out the former, he was criticized by fans in Denver and sports media alike.
The game he sat out against Nuggets star Nikola Jokic was the fourth straight he’s missed in Denver, where he’s not played a game since November 2019.
Because of the nature of Embiid’s late scratch over the weekend, Nuggets coach Michael Malone was not pleased about how he and his team were informed.
“We found out very late and again, I don’t know how you go from being active/available to out,” Malone said after his team topped the 76ers. “And I’m sure the league will do their due diligence because that’s frowned upon. We’ve had situations this year where we’ve talked to the league and they told us if a player goes from being active to out, there’s going to be an investigation.”
Philly head coach Nick Nurse insisted that Embiid wanted to play in Denver, but that the left knee kept him from doing so.
“He really wanted to play, and the medical team did not deem him fit to play today,” Nurse said Saturday. “That’s too bad for those fans. That’s too bad.”
Embiid gave things a go against the Warriors on Tuesday, scoring a season-low 14 points before his injury forced him out late in the game.
It was the only game this season in which he has not scored at least 20 points.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Embiid will not play in the 76ers’ Thursday game in Utah and will instead go back to Philadelphia to get further evaluation on his knee.
The outlet also added that Philly and the superstar will have to manage the injury for the rest of this season.
When Embiid had played this year, he has been a force, leading the NBA with a career-high 35.3 points per game to go along with 11.3 rebounds.