The Sixers released an injury report after today’s practice that listed Joel Embiid as questionable for tomorrow night’s game against the Charlotte Hornets. The update via Philly.com’s Kyle Neubeck:
A disheartening note on Joel Embiid from today’s practice. Questionable for tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/NISV7wP6Gq
— Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) October 26, 2018
According to Neubeck, Brett Brown said that it was Amir Johnson who Embiid landed on when rolling his ankle. Whenever I hear of Embiid and a rolled ankle, my heart stops. But this sounds relatively minor, and I would imagine the Sixers already felt like Embiid could use a rest anyway.
The Sixers are talented enough to beat the Hornets without Embiid (er, the Hornets are talent-devoid enough to lose to an Embiid-less Sixers squad), but that doesn’t mean the Sixers will in fact leave the Wells Fargo Center with a victory Saturday night. With how things have gone to begin this season, you’d really like to see the Sixers hand a beatdown to a team like the Hornets. But without Embiid, what could have potentially been a comfortable win becomes a game with a projectably smaller margin of talent between the two squads. Kemba Walker has been incredible to start the season, and the Sixers will have to find a way to counter his contributions without Joel’s 29.6 PPG.