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Tim BontempsESPN
Philadelphia 76ers superstar center Joel Embiid will have an MRI after hyperextending his left knee on Friday night against the Washington Wizards, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski
Embiid was in the midst of the latest dominant performance of his MVP-caliber season, scoring 23 points on 8-for-11 shooting to go along with seven rebounds, three assists and two blocks in 20 minutes, when he caught a pass from Tobias Harris and flew in for a dunk to give Philadelphia an 80-60 lead with 6:20 remaining in the third quarter.
But as Embiid came to the ground after the dunk, his full body weight landed on that left leg — causing it to hyperextend, sending him falling to the ground and causing him to writhe around in a ton of pain.
After staying down for a few minutes, Embiid eventually got to his feet and walked off under his own power — though with a fairly pronounced limp — as he went straight back to the visitor’s locker room inside Washington’s Capital One Arena.
Embiid had a similarly scary situation last month when he hyperextended his right knee in an awkward fall against the Portland Trail Blazers after blocking an Enes Kanter layup. In that game, Embiid returned a few minutes later and dominated, scoring 31 first-half points in a game Philadelphia eventually lost.
Philadelphia got Embiid back Friday night after both he and Ben Simmons missed Thursday’s win in Chicago over the Bulls — as well as Sunday’s All-Star Game in Atlanta — because of contact tracing stemming from a barber both stars visited before heading to Atlanta.
Simmons remained out Friday, but was expected to return — assuming he doesn’t have a positive test for COVID-19 before then — for Sunday’s game in Philadelphia against the San Antonio Spurs.
The Sixers will remain atop the Eastern Conference with a win Friday night, moving a full game ahead of the second-place Brooklyn Nets.
