The Philadelphia 76ers entered the bubble looking to capitalize on the layoff that allowed Ben Simmons to get himself healthy and back into the starting lineup for the restart after missing time with a back injury in February and March.
Unfortunately, the Sixers saw Simmons go down with a knee injury during the seeding round that has forced him to go get surgery and leave the bubble — and one would expect, end his season. That obviously put a dent in the Sixers hopes of toppling the top teams in the Eastern Conference, but on Sunday things got even worse for Philadelphia.
Playing the Portland Trail Blazers, Joel Embiid left midway through the first quarter with an apparent lower leg injury and was in the locker room for some time before word emerged from the team that he would miss the remainder of the game with an ankle injury.
Joel Embiid won’t return to game vs. Blazers with left ankle injury, per Sixers.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 9, 2020
At this time, the severity of the injury is unknown as Embiid checked out of the game, got his ankle looked at, and then went to the locker room. The hope, of course, is that the Sixers are just being understandably cautious with their star big man given the situation and he will be able to return soon. Still, we’ll provide updates when they are available on the All-NBA center who has been dominant in the bubble.
