9:10pm: Like Neubeck, Ramona Shelburne of ESPN hears from sources that Embiid’s orbital fracture might not require surgery. He’ll be reevaluated next week but will miss a minimum of five days due to the concussion. With the caveat that there’s still no timetable for his potential return, sources tell Shelburne that “the door isn’t closed” on that possibility (Twitter links).
7:57pm: Sixers star Joel Embiid suffered a right orbital fracture and mild concussion in the team’s Game 6 victory over Toronto on Thursday, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter), who says the center will be sidelined with no timetable for a return.
The Sixers have confirmed the news, according to Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice (Twitter link). Embiid will be listed as out and his status will be updated “as appropriate.”
As ESPN’s Tim Bontemps notes (via Twitter), the injury appeared to occur when Embiid was hit in the face by an inadvertent elbow from Pascal Siakam late in the fourth quarter of the 132-97 blowout win. Philadelphia was up 29 points at the time, with only four minutes remaining, Derek Bodner of The Daily Six newsletter tweets.
Embiid had already been playing through pain for the past week after he tore a ligament in his right thumb in Game 3 of the first-round series, which will require surgery in the offseason.
Obviously, it’s devastating news for both Embiid personally and for Philadelphia’s title hopes. Any prolonged absence will have a profound impact on the team’s upcoming series against Miami, which starts on Monday. The Heat are the No. 1 seed in the East and hold home-court advantage over the No. 4 Sixers.
The 28-year-old big man is an MVP finalist for the second consecutive season after a phenomenal regular season in which he averaged a league-best 30.6 points along with 11.7 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.5 blocks on .499/.371/.814 shooting in 68 games (33.8 minutes). Despite playing through the torn thumb ligament for three-plus games, he averaged an impressive 26.2 points, 11.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists in the team’s six-game series win over the Raptors.
This is the second orbital fracture Embiid has sustained in his career, Neubeck writes in a story for PhillyVoice. The first occurred on the left side of his face in 2018, with Embiid undergoing surgery and ultimately missing 22 days and 10 games (including two playoff games), which is the average recovery timeline for the injury, per Jeff Stotts of InStreetClothes.com (Twitter thread). There’s no indication yet that a surgery will be required this time around, Neubeck notes.
With Embiid sidelined, the Sixers will lean heavily on James Harden, Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris for offense, but there will be a giant hole in the middle of the lineup with their best player out. Backup big men Paul Reed, DeAndre Jordan and Paul Millsap are candidates to see additional action in Embiid’s stead.
As a sixers fan it’s like we can’t have nice things.
Yeah it’s like not a surprise anymore unfortunately. Why did I get excited for the playoffs?
what’s amazing to me is it’s never the same thing. like we know where Embiid usually gets banged up, but then you get fluke stuff like this. ugh.
At least harden’s at the top of his game…
That’s what Philadelphia gets for booing Santa Claus.
I say this as a Celtics fan. If Harris, Maxey, and Harden can dominate from 3pt land, the 76ers can beat anybody. I hope that Doc gives Paul Reed more minutes. I have been following him sine his days at DePaul.
All other playoffs teams have home court advantage over 76ers
If Embiid misses 2 games in any series ….
I cannot understand why Reed wasn’t already in that game! I like what I have seen from him so far.
Gotta be freaking kidding me.
This is awful for NBA fans. These Eastern Conference semifinals matchups are going to be good as I can remember. Phily fans better pray Harden shows up.
We were robbed as NBA fans though for 2 great matchups and 4 great teams. Smh
NBA fans have been robbed, jobbed of the best playoff matchups because of injuries, for many years now.
It sucks, but it’s just the way it is.
Okay. Doc Rivers need to be fired. They were up by 29 with 4 mins left and he was in the game when he got hurt!!!
I’m not a Philly mean and injuries can happen at anytime but yeah why was he even playing ? They had the game . Now they Jordan , Millsap are the centers ? Yikes
Probably because we have blown 20 point leads more than once this year, and Toronto had their starters in and Jo was coming out at the next stoppage…unfortunately this was the stoppage, it’s pretty simple, even if it sucks
PhillyPhan, so if the lead gets whittled down to, say, 16 or 14, you put Joel back in. No star player of any team should be on the floor up by 29 with 4 minutes to play. Imagine if this were Lebron?
Embiid wanted to gloat in Toronto and stuff the stat sheet for MVP. Hand… overplayed…
Yes, Embiid did that ‘coming in for a landing’ crap, or whatever it is, but padding his stats? Doc Rivers decides when to remove his players from the game. Embiid averaged 30.6 points per game in only 33.8 minutes per this year. I doubt he stayed in to pad his stats. MVP voting was held prior to the post season.
Fair enough. But he was definitely out there to put a stamp on the blow out.
This is the line for you? Mine was before they hired him
How about the assistants? You’d think at least one of them would have said something!
Ironically he was coming out on the next series, Siakam totally him in the face on purpose he was seen grinning afterwards. It is what it is these people play dirty all the time.
Siakam and Embiid are good pals and countrymen, there’s no way that was intentional.
C-Daddy that was clearly not a motion intended for maximizing the shot’s chanves. Siakam aimed straight for the head, and he had the fans behind him, themselvs fired up by Embiid’s stupid show-off actions shortly before. Even TV cops would call that motivation.
There’s different kinds of pals I guess.
Who’s the best Camaroooonian
What’s obvious to anyone that watches basketball is how embiid stopped playing defence, how are you suppose to protect yourself in the paint with your arms at your sides, if he would have had his arms up playing defence this most likely doesn’t happen, if anyone is to blame its embiid for giving up on defence
I would guess Embiid could tell that Siakam did not have a basketball made shot in mind when he charged in. Siakam’s approach was odd… too forward, too fast, too rash with a shotblocker ahead waiting, if it really was scoring he wanted in a blowout.
I don’t see how Embiid’s arm location matters. If Siakam wanted contact he could get contact. Arms raised would not stop him either.
Why deny? It’s an emotional sport and everyone was riled up.
Now you gotta make up excuses for him? It’s obvious he was out there padding his stats showboating and not playing defence. They teach you young to alway protect yourself. This on embiid and no one else
Victim-blaming. Nobody defends in BB by assuming personal assault. It is not an optimal allocation of resources.
I guess it’s tough when you are a physical player and other players are physical around you? Remind me what Embiid did to Barnes (not the foot, that was an accident, the flagrant foul).
There’s also the elbow to birch in game 1
I’m devastated about this.
How many times did I say this?
76ers 4 best starters played too many minutes
I’ll have “Confirmation Bias” for $100 Alex.
Links?
What’s he doing still in the game late during a blowout?
Damn. No dog in this fight, but I hate seeing one of the best and maybe THE best player in the league out of a playoff series…
Seriously? THE best? HA!
Eh, you could argue he’s the best in the league. You’d be wrong but you could argue it. When healthy he’s definitely top 3 behind Giannis and Jokic in that order.
Heat in 3. #trusttheprocess
3 games to win a best of seven, that’d be pretty amazing.
Embid was inly in the game for personal stats. Lame!
@Michol
he was in because the coach had him in.
@knicks you are dreaming. Embiid made the call.
Update walks this back alot, assuming he doesn’t need surgery. I think he’ll be back for game 2.
As a Heat fan, this actually really sucks. It sucks in general for multiple reasons, but I was really looking forward to this series. I dont like the Heat’s matchup against them, but I really wanted to see how they would deal with Embiid. It’s weird too b/c I feel like the Heat have unbelievably terrible luck with injuries over the last 8 years, but they have also had a lot of bad luck with Embiid
I feel bad for Embiid. He shouldn’t have been in the game and they should’ve finished off Toronto sooner. Bummer. And for the folks dismissing Embiids status as a top player, I don’t get why you’re here talking crap as a casual fan. This isn’t twitter.
Because this player is not humble and is incapable of being a true leader. It’s hard to watch others cheer on an athlete with such negative attributes.
… don’t get me wrong. I’m not happy the man is hurt, but he hasn’t earned my sympathy.
Time to take a break Joel, I mean dude is like a walking wounded at this stage!
There is always next year!
Now Rivers can get fired for poor decision making, and head west to coach the Lakers where the players handle that themselves.
Yes
Perfect for Lakers
Lakers need to make playoffs first then talk champs
Camaroon on Camaroon violence gotta stop y’all.
Cameroon
Completely insane that Embiid was on the floor
Charles Oakley looking for a 10-day contract next time the Sixers play the Raptors in the regular season?
So he can play for the raptors ?
Weren’t beating the Heat anyway. Now you got an excuse. That’s all Embiid has. All talk and excuses. Now we will see the Real Harden. A “no show” …..
the way they were playing they assuredly had a chance to beat the Heat, especially with them banged up as well.
In a way, this was a gift from the basketball gods to Doc Rivers, Harden & Morey.
They carried all the pressure in the world to win a championship now – with the way the Harden trade went down, Morey resisting all previous trade proposals, waiting for his golden child.
Now without Embiid, they have a ready-made excuse when they fall to the HEAT.
All of them gets a bye and tries again next season, especially Harden who looks shot and scared on the court – he’s slow, he doesn’t play through contact and just flails away, hoping to draw the fouls that he used to get before.
Doc Rivers kept Embiid on the court in a clear blowout, since he was so scared to blow another close-out game and had to explain himself to the media.
Hindsight is 100% correct, but a 20++ point lead with 4-5 minutes to go, that game was clearly over.