As the Sixers walked out from the locker room to start the second half Friday, Joel Embiid was ominously not among them.
The Sixers ruled Embiid out in the third quarter for the rest of their loss to the Pacers. Late Friday night, a team official said Embiid suffered a sinus fracture against Indiana and will be further evaluated this weekend.
After taking an inadvertent hit to the right side of his face from Pacers shooting guard Bennedict Mathurin, Embiid exited the game with 6.5 seconds remaining in the second quarter. As he pursued his own miss inside, Mathurin’s arm hit Embiid. The seven-time All-Star stayed down on the floor for a couple of minutes and went back to the locker room with a towel pressed against his face.
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Embiid has been hampered by a troublesome left knee to start this season and missed 17 of the Sixers’ first 23 games. He has a history of facial injuries, suffering a left orbital fracture in 2018 and a right orbital fracture in 2022.
“He practiced all week and he was in a good place,” Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said postgame. “We did a lot of stuff to kind of get up to speed with him. But I imagine he’s going to feel like the black cloud is over him a little bit. He just keeps running into something, unfortunately … really unfortunately.”
The 7-16 Sixers began the night without Caleb Martin (right shoulder impingement), Kyle Lowry (lower back spasms) and Adem Bona (left knee tendinopathy). Their Big 3 of Embiid, Paul George and Tyrese Maxey has played just one full game together so far.
At 24 years old, Maxey is well-accustomed to bad luck and odd developments with the Sixers.
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“You just kind of move on. ... Next man up mentality,” he said. “The only part that sucks about this is I think we were stepping in the right direction. Guys were kind of figuring out their roles, figuring out what the coaches want from them.
“We were playing the right way. ... Now it’s difficult. When Jo is there, we know how we’re going to play. We knew how we were going to play without him. … We have to revert our minds back. It’s different, and that’s OK. That’s how life is.”
The Sixers are now 1-5 with their cornerstone big man, who's certainly no stranger to injury misfortune.
“Stay positive,” George said. “That’s all we can do. Just enjoy going out there and hooping, playing for one another. Injuries are a part of this game. We’re very aware of that.
“We’ll just try to pick up the pieces, try to hold it down for Joel. … We’ve just got to keep rolling, keep it going.”