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Head coach Nick Nurse and the Philadelphia 76ers are currently anxiously awaiting the return of superstar center Joel Embiid, who has been out of the lineup since late January after suffering a meniscus injury. In the months since, Philadelphia has predictably fallen down the Eastern Conference standings, but Nurse has been able to do an admirable job of still keeping his team relatively afloat despite the bad injury luck with Embiid.
Recently, before the 76ers' Sunday evening road tilt vs the Toronto Raptors, Nurse took the opportunity to give a critical update about Embiid's status as he prepares to return from the injury, hopefully before the playoffs get underway in just under three weeks' time.
“You know, he made the trip (to Toronto), and he made the trip because the majority of the players were here,” said Nurse, per NBC Sports Philadelphia on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter. “We practiced kind of light yesterday but then also did some stuff specifically geared towards him, so he's on the court, there's other players out there. I think we're in the famous two words: ‘ramp up' period right now. We're in the ramp up period, and hopefully we'll keep ticking that way.”
Ramping up is certainly a more optimistic outlook for Embiid than some of the other reports that have surfaced in recent weeks regarding the reigning league MVP. The 76ers currently sit in eighth place in the vaunted Eastern Conference playoff picture and would face the Miami Heat in the Play-In game if the regular season ended today.
A bizarre season for the 76ers
The 76ers' season was enshrouded in turmoil basically from the moment it began due at that time to the trade request of point guard James Harden, who had publicly feuded with Philadelphia president of basketball operations Daryl Morey. Harden eventually got his wish, being sent off to the Los Angeles Clippers in late October, which then set the stage for the emergence of Tyrese Maxey, who stuffed the stat sheet on a nightly basis in the early portion of the season while playing alongside Embiid, who looked like the clear frontrunner to win his second straight league MVP award prior to the injury.
Embiid's missed game vs the Denver Nuggets on January 27 raised eyebrows across the league from some who accused him of ducking Nuggets star center Nikola Jokic; however, when Embiid took the floor a few nights later vs the Golden State Warriors and looked very hobbled, fans knew something was wrong. It was around that time that the injury was announced, keeping the big man out of the 76ers' lineup in the weeks since and sending the team cascading down the standings.
There's a very real possibility that if the 76ers do end up winning in the Play-In round, they would end up facing the Boston Celtics in the first round in a rematch of last year's semifinal series, which Boston ended up winning in seven entertaining games despite Philadelphia going up 3-2.
