The Philadelphia 76ers will be without star forward Jimmy Butler for Monday's game against the Dallas Mavericks, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Butler is dealing with back tightness and will be day-to-day moving forward, unlike his frontcourt partner Joel Embiid, who is slated to miss the next two games for load management with a flaring tendinitis left knee injury.
The Sixers are battling to keep the third seed in the East, but will have to do so a bit shorthanded against a Mavs team that surprised an Oklahoma City Thunder team in full strength, handing them a 106-103 loss without Luka Doncic in the lineup.
Butler has been relatively healthy this season, compared to Embiid, who has now missed 10 games due to his knee injury.
“It isn’t ideal,” Brown said Saturday about preparing for the postseason without his full array of starters. “In a perfect world, you’d have all these guys together and playing, and playing a lot, you know, growing in relation to familiarity and so on.”
The Sixers will now have to make due with Ben Simmons and Tobias Harris as the only stars on the floor with only six games remaining on the season, four of which will take place on the road.
Philadelphia could get Butler back as soon as Wednesday for a showdown against the Atlanta Hawks, but could opt to rest him before a back-to-back affair that will have them face the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks one last time at home confines.
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