Atlantic Notes: George, Embiid, Knicks, Hauser, Queta

Sixers star Paul George is continuing to progress well in his recovery from a bone bruise in his knee, but he will not be available for Philadelphia’s upcoming two-game road trip, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports (Twitter link). The next update on George’s availability will come early next week, per Charania.

Earlier Thursday, head coach Nick Nurse said both George and Joel Embiid were participating in “most of the action” at practice (Twitter link via The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Keith Pompey). The two did not participate in the five-on-five scrimmages but were doing some live work.

As we relayed, the NBA officially launched an investigation into Embiid’s player participation. He’s already set to miss the first three games of the year. Without George or Embiid in the season opener, the Sixers lost by 15 points to Milwaukee. They next travel to Toronto and Indiana.

We have more from the Atlantic Division:

• The new-look Knicks were the talk of the offseason after making massive swings by acquiring Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges via trade. However, they were defeated by 23 points in the opener against the Celtics, allowing 132 points. According to the New York Post’s Peter Botte, the team knows they need to respond. “That’s championship-level basketball. For us, it was a punch in the mouth and we gotta respond,” guard Miles McBride said. “Obviously, it’s a long year. Can’t overreact to one game, but I don’t think that’s how you go into a year and set the tone.“
• For his part, Bridges acknowledged that the Knicks know they’re a work in progress, according to SNY Knicks (Twitter link). “It’s not going to be right away,” Bridges said. “It’s going to take time and building. You can be a mediocre, a solid to okay team, but that’s not what we’re striving to be. We have to continue and get better every day.” The Knicks made the second round of the playoffs last year but struggled with injuries through the end of the year.
• Celtics wing Sam Hauser, who played 24 minutes in the season opener and scored 10 points, missed Boston’s Thursday game against the Wizards, observes Spotrac’s Keith Smith (Twitter link). He’s dealing with lower back soreness.
• Neemias Queta made a case for more minutes in the Celtics‘ win over the Wizards on Thursday, Brian Robb of MassLive writes. He scored 12 points and seven rebounds in just 14 minutes played, holding his own against Washington’s bigs. As Robb writes, Queta could help ease Al Horford‘s workload even with Kristaps Porzingis out due to injury.