Joel Embiid: probable for tonight with gastroenteritis

It sounds like the Sixers’ superstar Joel Embiid may not simply be dealing with left knee tendinitis. He may now be sick as well. The team has a must win game tonight in Toronto after falling 1-0 in the best of 7 game series against the Raptors. They’ll certainly need a better showing tonight from Embiid who was held to 16 points on 18 shots on Saturday. But will Embiid be at full strength?

It was reported by Serena Winters of NBCS Philadelphia that Joel is dealing with a case of gastroenteritis and will miss the shootaround because of it.

It’s less than ideal because having a starting unit (who hasn’t had much time to play together anyway) get in all the reps and coaching sessions they can would have been helpful in adjusting to the Raptors well-choreographed attack.

It sure does seem that bugs like these and upper respiratory infections have plagued the Sixers a lot this year. (Unless illness is just Sixers’ medical-team code for “anything we don’t want to actually disclose”). I’d be surprised if other teams were impacted by illness as much as this group reports.

Maybe they need to begin handing out gas masks and have team chefs make everything they’re eating. Maybe some sneaky Toronto hotel workers spiked Embiid’s order in order to give their home team an even bigger edge.

Whatever it was, hopefully Embiid’s stomach is feeling better by tip off because it’s the biggest game of the season and who knows how different the team and coaching staff may look next year if they don’t have a good showing.