Joel Embiid will be out at least a week with left soreness, the Sixers announced on Wednesday.
That's the bad news. The good news is Embiid had an MRI which revealed no structural damage and will be out a week as a "precaution" and for "load management."
Over the next seven days, the Sixers will play three games: Thursday vs. Miami, Saturday vs. Portland, and Monday at New Orleans. All three of those games are very winnable, even without Embiid.
Embiid just participated in his second All-Star game this past weekend (Brett Brown says he doesn't believe the all-star game impacted anything) and the Sixers could certainly just be trying to give Embiid some extended rest here. Embiid, 24, has played in 54 of 58 games this season averaging a career high 33.7 minutes per game. He's also putting up MVP caliber numbers, averaging 27.3 points, 13.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.9 blocks.
The Sixers, and I've written about this before, are pretty much locked into the three or four seed in the East, so these final 24 games aren't incredibly important. Philly is 5.5 games behind the No. 2 seeded Raptors and 6.5 games back of the first place Bucks. They're not going to catch either of those teams. It'd be nice to finish as the No. 3 seed ahead of Boston, for a potential 3-4 Eastern Conference Finals series and home court if it gets to that, but it's not a huge deal.
At this point, health, rest and gearing up for the postseason is the Sixers' top priority, as it should be.
More bad news
Furkan Korkmaz tore his meniscus on Feb. 12th against the Celtics. He will have surgery.
Zhaire Smith
Good news is that Zhaire Smith was a partial participant in Wednesday's practice.
