76ers vs. Nets: Joel Embiid, James Harden’s Playing Status Sunday

The Philadelphia 76ers will wrap up their 2022-2023 season on Sunday afternoon with a matchup against the Brooklyn Nets. Considering the Sixers have a playoff run in their future, they won’t risk any injuries to their star duo of James Harden and Joel Embiid on Sunday.

As expected, Joel Embiid and James Harden will get the night off, and they aren’t alone. For the second-straight game, the Sixers will be without the two stars PJ Tucker, Tobias Harris, Tyrese Maxey, and De’Anthony Melton.

In addition to those guys that are guaranteed to miss the matchup, the veteran power forward Georges Niang is currently questionable due to left knee soreness.

The Sixers went into Friday night’s game against the Atlanta Hawks facing a similar scenario. With the Eastern Conference’s third seed already locked up, the Sixers had nothing to compete for. Therefore, they allowed most of their rotational pieces to sit as they looked to avoid any injuries before the playoffs.

Despite facing a healthy Atlanta Hawks team, the Sixers’ group of motivated reserves found a way to form a regulation comeback and force overtime in Atlanta. Once the game went into the extra period, the Sixers outscored the Hawks by seven and came away with a shocking win.

On Sunday, the circumstances will be similar for the Sixers, but the Brooklyn Nets are trending towards resting a bunch of their guys as well. Not only are the Nets set to participate in the playoffs, but they’ll play against the Sixers. Therefore, Brooklyn won’t want to show its hand before the first-round series begins.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.