The Philadelphia 76ers have been subject to plenty of injuries this year, and a new crowd is now obtaining some minor bumps and bruises.
The Philadelphia 76ers lost in overtime to the Chicago Bulls, blowing a 24-point lead that they held at one point in the game. Jimmy Butler came alive and scored over 50 points (a career high for Butler), leading the Bulls who were tattered with injuries to a win to end a 3-game skid.
Although it could be argued that the Sixers played halfway-decent against a Bulls team that was hurt (a big advantage for Philly), the Sixers weren’t exactly fresh either. They’ve had injuries of their own that have impacted their lineup and forced them to make some changes.
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Jerami Grant missed the entiritiy of the Bulls game on Thursday night, taking a seat next to veteran Elton Brand–who is also working his body back to playing level–for the game. Grant was suffering a calf injury. Grant has been a bit overshadowed in national media by the likes of Ish Smith and Jahlil Okafor, but for Sixers fans that have paid attention all year, they know Grant is a consistent piece of the Sixers’ success.
Grant is averaging 1.6 blocks per game, despite being shorter than a lot of NBA players. He has some deceptive length, and is able to use that to his advantage.
One has to imagine what the game would have gone like if the Sixers could have placed Grant on Butler for at least a part of the game.
Head coach Brett Brown said he wouldn’t be surprised if Grant missed Saturday’s game against the Portland Trailblazers as well.
On Friday, Brett Brown said that Grant was doubtful for Saturday, per Brian Seltzer.
Nik Stauskas suffered a shoulder contusion late in the game against the Bulls. The injury doesn’t appear to be all that serious.
Nik has been heating up since Ish Smith came onto the team, and even more since the New Year was rung in. In 2016, Stauskas is shooting 40.0 percent from the field, 48.4 percent from beyond the arc, and scoring 8.1 points per game.
After an awful first half of the season, it’s good to see Nik getting somewhere, but it would be awful to see that ruined by injury, so hopefully this shoulder contusion is the most major thing that happens to him.
In addition to Grant being declared doubtful, Stauskas was as well.
Elton Brand
Elton Brand isn’t exactly injured, but hasn’t had a ready body since getting signed by the team. Due to that, he still has yet to play. We could be seeing him next week, as he has been active in practice with the guys, and working hard to get himself on the court.
Joel Embiid is likely to miss this whole season due to recovery from a foot surgery. That’s something we’ve known since the beginning of the year, but some fans have been eager to see him play, and get him on the floor in order to build up a trade market for him.
Brett Brown has shut down those rumors, saying that they don’t plan on using Embiid at all this season, even if he was game-ready.
Next: A 10-game evaluation of Ish Smith
Despite that, Embiid is moving along nicely in his recovery. We’ve seen him work hard during pre-game warm-ups, and it’s clear that he is taking his rehabilitation seriously. Oh, and that’s not to mention that he looks like he’s bulked up even more.