PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The long-term status of Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid remained up in the air on Saturday night as the defending NBA MVP and team officials continued to wait for potential options to deal with a meniscus injury suffered on Tuesday at Golden State.
“Nope, we're just still waiting," Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said when asked for an Embiid update during his pre-game press conference Saturday before Philadelphia's game against the Brooklyn Nets.
The team confirmed in a statement to reporters on Thursday that Embiid suffered a lateral meniscus injury after Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga fell on his leg during the fourth quarter of Golden State's 119-107 win. The report continued by saying that Embiid would miss Philadelphia's game on Saturday against Brooklyn and would be reevaluated by doctors and team officials to determine a rehabilitation plan for Embiid.
Embiid had missed the two previous games on the road trip with what the club called “left knee swelling," and has been listed as questionable with swelling in the knee at times since mid-December. Nurse said the club was unaware of any problems with the meniscus until Tuesday night's injury.
The injury will likely take Embiid out of the running for MVP due to a new league rule. Under the new guidelines, players must appear in at least 65 of their team's 82 games to be eligible for awards, and Embiid has already missed 13 games this season.
Embiid suffered the injury when Golden State Warriors big man Jonathan Kuminga fell on his left knee in the fourth quarter of a 76ers loss. Embiid had already been dealing with soreness and pain in the left knee and missed three games due to that discomfort in January.
“We continue to see different things each night that takes a different look to see how much we can use Paul and how much we can get out of Mo,” Nurse said. “Paul is a hustle, put back guy and Mo is a caretaker of the ball on offense going side to side and blocking shots. They have to cover the 48 minutes — especially for now and we believe in them.”
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