The Philadelphia 76ers are now 2-12 on the season, officially the worst record in the entire National Basketball Association. The latest tire on the dumpster fire was the team's 117-111 loss in Memphis on Wednesday night. However, one of the few bright spots from that defeat was Joel Embiid approaching looking like his old self, tallying a season-high 35 points and 11 rebounds. Maybe a new 30-10 streak, the greatest achievement in modern sports, was in the works! At least heading into Friday's game against Brooklyn, it was a sign things could get turned around.
Welp...
To recap, the Sixers did not have a game Wednesday night, and do not have a game tomorrow night, yet Joel Embiid is questionable due to injury management on that left knee. We expected, and even lauded, this sort of thing for back-to-backs this season, but for the issue to be cropping up for an isolated game is extremely worrying. If playing a season-high 35 minutes in Memphis was too taxing on Joel's knee, how can you be confident he'll ever be back to his old self?
Embiid was present at shootaround this morning, but not did participate, so at least the time, if not injury, management is on an uptick.
Paul George is out for at least the next two games with that left knee bone bruise. Embiid may now be unavailable as well. What originally looked like a potential get-right game against the 6-9 Nets appears increasingly fraught. After the optimism of two months ago, both the short-term and long-term outlooks for this Sixers franchise are now getting more perilous by the day.