Nick Nurse gives injury updates on Joel Embiid, other Sixers players

[76ers Since 74]

CAMDEN, N.J. — The Philadelphia 76ers convened for practice on Saturday afternoon before boarding a plane and heading to South Florida for an important Christmas Day matchup with the Miami Heat. While most of the Sixers were able to participate in practice, there was one noticeable absence: Joel Embiid. The big fella fell awkwardly in the first quarter of Friday’s win over the Toronto Raptors and was lying on his back in pain. He did end up staying in the game and winded up scoring 31 points with 10 rebounds and nine assists. “He didn’t go,” coach Nick Nurse said of Embiid. “We didn’t do a whole lot today. To be honest, this probably would have been a day off, but just considering the timing of the year and all that kind of stuff we decided to go in today and take tomorrow off as much as you can while you’re traveling, right? Late game, obviously. So we’ll get a good decent shootaround on Christmas morning, a good practice there. So we didn’t do much watch a little film. Got some shots up and went from there.” As far as any concerns for Embiid, Nurse admitted there are some, but he isn’t too worried. It remains to be seen if he will be ready to play on Christmas against the Heat, but all he can do is undergo the treatments and do what needs to be done in order to be ready for this upcoming 4-game road trip. “He’s kinda getting treatment as we speak,” Nurse added. “We’re looking at—yeah, there’s some swelling there and when you saw it wasn’t ‘Oh, we didn’t even see what happened’ well, you saw what happened, right? So there’s some swelling there. I think there’s some concern there, but I also think there’s not a ton of concern. You know what I mean? Like you’re always concerned when you see that. It did turn over pretty good.” Luckily for Embiid and Vice President of Athlete Care Simon Rice, this isn’t anything new for them. They have always had to go through certain injuries such as these. “He’s been through this before quite a bit,” Nurse continued. “Him and Simon have been through it before and I just don’t think—they’re gonna need a bunch of treatments, multiple treatments today, you know, they just hammer the heck out of those things and they’ll meet him tomorrow (Sunday) and I think those things are always kind of wait and see as we go, how they respond to the treatments.” As far as the other injured Sixers, Nurse stated that De’Anthony Melton (thigh contusion) and Patrick Beverley (right heel soreness) were full participants in practice. Mo Bamba (illness) did not practice. As for Nic Batum (right hamstring strain), there isn’t anything new in his recovery after the veteran missed the previous two games. “I think that the earliest possible date for him would be Orlando,” Nurse said of Batum. “And I think that might be a touch early too, but that would be the earliest possible date.” Report: Sixers to sign big man Kenneth Lofton Jr. to a two-way dealSixers happy with production they receive from Danuel House Jr.Tyrese Maxey explains his frequent 4th quarter success to lead Sixers
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Source: https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/2023/12 ... s-players/