Joel Embiid has been a major talking point for fans and critics alike amid Team USA's successful run in the 2024 Paris Olympics thus far. On Tuesday, the story was that the Philadelphia 76ers star had to sit out the entire second half of their 122-87 demolition job of Brazil in the quarterfinals of the competition.
It seemed as though Embiid was, once again, demoted to a smaller role, with Anthony Davis and Bam Adebayo looking like the more effective big men for Team USA. However, the reason for Embiid's benching was that he sustained a bit of discomfort in his ankle and he told Steve Kerr at halftime, which prompted the Team USA head coach to give the 76ers star some valuable rest, per Tim Reynolds of AP.
Joel Embiid has a long history of leg injuries, so any injury of the sort is not a good development. It's unclear just how severe Embiid's ankle discomfort is, but he'll only have one full day of rest before Team USA takes on Serbia in the semifinals of the Olympics.
Whatever the case may be with Embiid's ankle, Team USA's frontcourt is in safe hands. Anthony Davis and Bam Adebayo might be the best possible big-man duo any team can deploy against the unstoppable Nikola Jokic, and it seems like the Serbian star is always elevating his game when coming up against the 76ers center. The last thing they need to face is an even more motivated version of Jokic.
Will Joel Embiid play in Team USA's semifinal matchup vs. Serbia?
With it being the semifinals of the 2024 Paris Olympics, Team USA will be needing all hands on deck against a Serbia team that showed, in their spirited comeback overtime victory over Australia, that they cannot be counted out at any juncture of the game, especially when they have three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic leading the way.
Given Joel Embiid's injury history, however, Team USA may prefer to err on the side of caution when it comes to dealing with his ankle injury. Ankle injuries are notoriously tricky to deal with; considering the force Embiid plays the game with, he might find it even more difficult to play with his ankle being less than 100 percent than he already has for the entirety of his Team USA stint to this point.
Tune in to find out whether Team USA will roll the dice on Embiid's health when they face Serbia on Thursday at 3:00 PM E.T.
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