Will Joel Embiid Play Against Mavericks on Saturday?

Fresh off a thrilling road victory over the New York Knicks on Friday night, the Sixers will play host to Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday.

Joel Embiid, listed as 'questionable' as recently as Friday at noon for the Knicks game, was then ruled out an hour later with the illness and right knee injury management. Embiid is listed as 'doubtful' on the initial injury report for Philadelphia's game against Dallas with the same ailments.

It is curious that he went from 'questionable' for one reason to appearing at shootaround on Friday to 'out' for two reasons a few hours later, and then was listed 'doubtful' for the same two reasons the next day. But we digress.

There will be a more solid indication closer to game time.

Paul George, who had a rough go against OG Anunoby on Friday, is out with left knee injury management.

Kelly Oubre Jr. (sprained left knee) and Trendon Watford (strained left adductor) remain out for Philadelphia, while Johni Broome (G-League assignment) and Hunter Sallis (two-way) will be unavailable as well.

On the Dallas side, star big man Anthony Davis is listed as 'probable' with an illness. Klay Thompson is 'questionable' with left knee soreness.

Of course, Kyrie Irving remains out indefinitely as he recovers from surgery on a torn ACL in his left knee. Dereck Lively II (right foot) and Dante Exum (right knee) are lost for the season.

Should Embiid be ruled out and Davis deemed available, it does complicate matters for Philadelphia a bit. Whereas a Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe combination figured capable of bothering Jalen Brunson and thus stalling the Knicks' offense a bit on Friday, a Davis and Cooper Flagg frontcourt figures to be a challenge for the likes of Dominick Barlow and Andre Drummond.

You would rather have Drummond circling the rim than guarding someone like Karl-Anthony Towns on the perimeter, but he's not the most consistent backline defender either. Both Flagg and Davis are lob threats, which should tax Drummond as the game goes on. You could see Barlow being the one in charge of roaming around the paint. But, at the end of the day, someone has to guard Davis and someone has to guard Flagg, who has popped more now that Ryan Nembhard is running point for the Mavs and making life easier on the first overall pick.

None of this is to say that the Sixers would be guaranteed an easier time with Embiid playing. His defense has lagged behind his offense quite a bit this season. But his box score and general gravity would help the offense on the second night of a back-to-back.

Dallas is 30th in offense for a reason, and it's because they struggle mightily in the halfcourt. Much of that has to do with being tied for 30th in three-point accuracy, per Cleaning The Glass.

But that inherently means two things. First, take care of the ball and shoot reasonably well and you'll keep the Mavericks out of transition, which is how they feed themselves. Second, they're going to rely on paint and non-paint twos.

In an ecosystem that does not include Embiid, you may be inclined to feature zone defense against a team that struggles to make threes and doesn't take a lot of them. Not only would that preserve some battery for your fatigued players after Friday's affair, but it would theoretically limit foul trouble. The problem is that Thompson, should he play, always lurks. He can bust the zone quickly, even in his diminished state. The other weakness is that zone exposes the mid-range, which will give Flagg, a good shooter at that level, some open touches. And even if he and Davis aren't taking the shots, flashing to the soft spots of the zone collapses the interior, leaving cutters pathways to the rim for dunks.

Consider me skeptical that Embiid won't play. But if he doesn't, this still isn't the most challenging opponent in the second game of a back-to-back. However, there are some matchup intricacies that could create problems for Philadelphia.