Nick Nurse: 'Not a Ton of Concern' About Star's Sore Knee

Embiid, who does not have to go to Los Angeles to participate in any All-Star events, will use the week off to rest his knee.

Feb 5, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid (21) lands on the floor after a basket in the first half against the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

PHILADELPHIA — Joel Embiid will miss his second consecutive game with right knee injury management, the Sixers revealed ahead of Wednesday's home game against the New York Knicks.

ESPN's Tim Bontemps was first to report that Embiid would miss the game with soreness in the knee.

Nick Nurse told assembled media that Embiid first reported the soreness after the Sixers' victory against the Phoenix Suns over the weekend.

Nurse is confident that the soreness is improving. "It's bothering him enough that he's not playing. Just not quite there to get out there tonight," Nurse told reporters.

The right knee is not the one that limited Embiid to just 19 games last season.

Embiid was a late scratch against the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday, a blowout loss to cap a mostly strong west-coast road trip.

Wednesday's home game against the Knicks is Philadelphia's last game before the All-Star break. The Sixers will return from the break to host the Atlanta Hawks on February 19.

Embiid, who does not have to go to Los Angeles to participate in any All-Star events, will use the week off to rest his knee.

"Yeah, I think that anybody that's a little bit sore and dinged up has a chance here to get some treatment for the week and off their feet for a week and he would certainly be included in that, for sure," Nurse said.

Embiid has most commonly missed games due to right knee injury management this season. He missed eight consecutive games in November due to right knee soreness.

His being listed on the injury report has been a common practice this season. But Embiid has usually been deemed available for games leading up to tip-off. The only circumstance in which he's consistently been absent is when Philadelphia is in a back-to-back situation, Embiid sitting for one of the two games. Any instance of him missing consecutive games with at least a day of rest in between is enough to raise antennas.

But Nurse was willing to extinguish concerns in his pregame media availability.

"Not a ton of concern. I think this is probably what we expected to happen, that there would be some soreness at times," he told reporters.

Embiid has been available relatively consistently this season, logging long streaks of games played as 2025 transitioned to 2026. But every once in a while, there's a reminder that those with intimate knowledge of his health expected him to encounter obstacles over the course of a long season.