Sixers' Joel Embiid Ruled Out vs. Bucks on Saturday
Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid will not be cleared to play on Saturday against the Milwaukee Bucks, a team official confirms.
Ever since going down with a knee injury early on last month, Embiid has been slowly easing himself back to being one-hundred percent. The promising sign for the Sixers is that despite missing ten-straight games due to a bruised knee, Embiid has only missed one game since returning.
For the last nine matchups, Embiid has played for the 76ers. However, he was questionable heading into Saturday afternoon's game against the Milwaukee Bucks. While Embiid admits that he doesn't feel one-hundred percent just yet because of his knee injury, his issue going into Saturday's game isn't related to his knee.
Instead, Embiid is battling a shoulder injury. It was apparent Embiid wasn't feeling right throughout Thursday night's game against Milwaukee. As the game progressed, the big man kept grabbing at his shoulder as he was clearly in pain.
Since the Sixers found themselves on the road to getting blown out by the Bucks the other night, Doc Rivers started unloading the bench and getting some of the starters out of the game. Eventually, Embiid went to get his shoulder checked out.
Following the game, Rivers didn't have any injury-related updates in regards to Embiid, but the Sixers did list the All-Star center as questionable heading into the matchup on Friday night. Hours before tip-off on Saturday afternoon, Rivers couldn't predict whether Embiid would play or not as the standout center would go through pregame warmups and test his shoulder out.
After warming up a little under an hour before tip-off, it seemed Embiid was on the path to playing. Initially, Embiid was listed in the Sixers' starting lineup, but the All-Star center was ruled out shortly as he's dealing with a sore shoulder.
Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_ & Instagram: @JGrassoNBA.
