Injury Update: Joel Embiid officially diagnosed with a sprained LCL, status for beginning of the series is still in question
Joel Embiid has officially been diagnosed with a sprained LCL, but there is hope that he can play “towards the beginning of the Sixers’ second-round series,” according to Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.
Joel Embiid: Sprained LCL
John Clark from NBC Sports Philadelphia also tweeted the same report today, which was basically the exact same thing that Shelburne said last night about Embiid.
Point being, neither Shelburne or Clark told us anything new, but in attempt to grab headlines (which they did, obviously) they ran the same report that everyone had earlier in the day on Monday.
The first report on Monday was from Shams Chanaria, saying that the Sixers were “optimistic” about Embiid being able to play in Game 1. At this point, I think it’s pretty obvious that the latest injury for Embiid certainly isn’t season-ending.
Joel Embiid will however, most likely need a brace on his knee for the rest of the playoffs.
“There is optimism [Joel Embiid] will be able to play in Game 1 one of their next series,” Shams says. “He had a sprained knee and I think they believe this about a one-week injury. Assuming the next series starts this upcoming weekend, the hope is that Joel Embiid will be in the lineup. He went down a few times in that Nets Game 3, but thankfully it wasn’t anything major.”
With Dejounte Murray suspended for Game 5 of the Hawks-Celtics series, the Sixers are basically on a collision course with Boston in the second round of the playoffs.
Obviously, Embiid will likely be a game-time decision for the first game of series whether that’s Saturday or Monday (depending on Hawks extending series) but again, that’s really nothing new either.
Joel Embiid is going to play in the second round. This is a guy who played last year’s playoffs with nine fingers and a broken face. A sprained LCL is not going to keep him sidelined against the Boston Celtics.
We are talking about one of the most self-aware players in the NBA. Joel knows exactly what’s at stake and what people say about him and the Sixers failures in the second round. Bank on Embiid playing by any means necessary.
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