Josh Richardson to Miss Multiple Weeks With Hamstring Strain

The Philadelphia 76ers met with the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night for the second time this season. As always, Philly struggled in front of the tough Toronto crowd at Scotiabank Arena as they took their 15th straight loss on the road to the Raptors during the regular season.

While it was just a standard regular-season defeat on the road for the Sixers, the additional tally in the loser's column isn't the most significant loss for the Sixers from Wednesday night. Instead, the biggest loss happens to come from Josh Richardson's injury.

Starting shooting guard Josh Richardson was healthy and ready to go before tip-off on Wednesday night. Richardson was set to make his 38th start for the 76ers this season. Unfortunately, his night lasted no longer than four minutes.

Richardson ended up suffering a non-contact injury, which occurred to his hamstring. Injuries of this sort aren't foreign to Richardson, who missed some time with a right hamstring strain earlier in the season. This time around, though, it's Richardson's left hamstring that is bothering him.

Following the game, Sixers' head coach Brett Brown wasn't willing to speak on the injury. As he wasn't quite sure how it all occurred, Brown didn't want to speculate as the Sixers' guard wasn't issued with an official diagnosis yet.

Richardson stuck to the same formula as he refused to speak on it as well. With an evaluation set for Thursday afternoon, though, the Sixers would soon find out that their 26-year-old starting guard will be forced to miss even more time this season.

MRI on 76ers guard Josh Richardson showed slight strain of left hamstring and he’s expected to be re-evaluated in two-to-three weeks, league sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) January 23, 2020

According to The Athletic's Shams Charania, Richardson has been diagnosed with a slight left hamstring strain after undergoing MRI tests. He will be re-evaluated in one-to-two weeks. After missing eight games already this season, Richardson will now have to miss at least two week's worth of games moving forward as well.

With Sixers' starting center Joel Embiid already out of the lineup with a torn ligament in his finger, Philly is now down two starters as they head into a tough stretch of games. With Richardson down for the count, there's a good chance the Sixers utilize Matisse Thybulle and Furkan Korkmaz a lot more, in addition to giving Shake Milton some minutes too.

There's hope that soon the Sixers will find some help via the trade market as they search for veteran shooting guards to come off of the bench. But so far, the trade market has been filled with many rumors and very little action.

Perhaps, Richardson's timetable forces the Sixers to speed up the process of making a move. It wouldn't be ideal for the Sixers to overpay, but additional help is very much needed at this point. Missing out on Richardson's 15 points-per-game will be detrimental. And the Sixers know that they don't have a surefire replacement at shooting guard right now that can match J-Rich's production. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter: @JGrasso_