76ers' Embiid (knee) doubtful for Game 4
Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid, who missed Game 3 of his team's first-round playoff series against the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday night because of left knee soreness, is listed as doubtful for Game 4 on Saturday. The NBA announced his status in its injury report Friday night.
Embiid's status has digressed from the first three games when he was listed as questionable. He continues to deal with left knee tendinitis, a problem throughout the regular season, when he missed 14 of the Sixers' 24 games after the All-Star break.
Despite Embiid's absence in Game 3, the visiting 76ers rolled to a 131-115 victory over the Nets to take a 2-1 lead. Greg Monroe started in his place, and collected nine points on 4-for-13 shooting and 13 rebounds. Game 4 of the best-of-seven will also be played in Brooklyn before the series shifts to Philadelphia on Tuesday.
"Had he had finished like he usually does and [in Game 3] didn't and rebounded and defended like he did, you'd say, 'That's a hell of a performance,'" 76ers coach Brett Brown said of Monroe in an ESPN report. "I don't care if you're a backup center, you've been in the league regularly playing or you've been a journeyman the last five, six months, whatever. If he just finished some shots, which he will and is capable of, we'd all be talking about like, 'Wow, what an amazing pickup [general manager] Elton Brand pulled off.' And I still think it's a hell of a story and certainly it helped us win a playoff game, without Joel Embiid.
"I thought he was excellent [in Game 3] in so many areas and would have been just off the charts had he had finished."
Embiid wore slippers while taking some 3-point shots Friday before going to work with a trainer and assistant coach Monty Williams on a side court, when that part of practice was available to the media.
He was a late scratch for Game 3 after warming up about 30 minutes before tipoff. Brown said had a feeling that Embiid would sit out Thursday's game after totaling 45 minutes in Games 1 and 2. In the first two games, Embiid averaged 22.5 points and 12.5 rebounds.
"The timing of, I always have sort of my gut feels of what's going to happen and judgment of how I really feel he's feeling and so on," Brown said while talking to the media Friday afternoon. "It's born out of talking with Jo, really and you obviously listen to our medical staff. And so I wasn't caught off-guard [in Game 3] and as it relates to [Game 4], I don't know and I really don't have a gut feel.
"So, to me, it's always best to plan that you don't have him and be really surprised and happy when you do."
While Embiid's 23 points and 10 rebounds helped the 76ers on the court in Game 2, it was the elbow he delivered that drew a flagrant foul, and his reaction to the play was the talk of the series off the court in recent days.
Embiid was whistled for a Flagrant 1 foul after a vicious elbow that caught the jaw of Brooklyn's Jarrett Allen during the 76ers' victory. Embiid apologized for the elbow during the postgame press conference but broke into laughter with teammate Ben Simmons doing it.
Embiid averaged 27.5 points and 13.6 rebounds in 33.7 minutes in 64 regular-season games this season, his third in the NBA. All marks were the best of his career thus far.
He has been plagued by injuries throughout his career. A broken bone in his right foot cost him the entirety of his first two NBA seasons. And in the three seasons in which he has played, he has missed 88 of the 76ers' regular-season games.
--Field Level Media
