PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia 76ers were able to knock off the Brooklyn Nets on Friday 113-98 to put a halt to a 5-game skid while also earning their first win in the NBA Cup. It was a terrific effort by Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain to get the job done in a much-needed win.
However, the focus was on Joel Embiid. The Sixers ruled the big fella out shortly before the contest due to left knee injury management and then issued an update during the contest that he would also miss Sunday's matchup with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Coach Nick Nurse addressed the latest on Embiid following the win over the Nets as he and his team now move forward.
"I was not aware," Nurse stated about the mid-game update. "I'm aware now, yeah, the Joel update is he was dealing with some swelling in his knee today which was why he was questionable. We got to the arena, was ruled out. He's going to treat it all weekend, so he'll be out for Sunday as well, and then hopefully Monday, we'll be giving you an update of where we're at and hopefully be in good shape."
It is a bit curious at the moment. Nurse did say pregame that Embiid was going to go through warm ups to determine his status for the game, but then never came out. He never went through his normal pregame warm up and he was then ruled out about half an hour before the game tipped off.
"Again, he had some swelling from the last game," Nurse added. "It's kind of something we knew we were going to be dealing with going into the season. They do what they can do to remove that swelling, but it just didn't feel good enough to go. We were pretty well aware of that, not too much longer after this press conference that he wasn't going to be able to go tonight, or the first press conference, I mean, and then they obviously looked at it again during the game or halftime or whatever, and decided they need to treat it this weekend, and we go from there."
The Sixers will face the Clippers on Sunday before having two days off and facing the Houston Rockets on the night before Thanksgiving on Nov. 27.