ESPN News Services
Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid is out for Thursday’s game against the Utah Jazz and will receive further evaluation on his left knee in the next 24 hours, a team official told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Embiid is expected to travel back to Philadelphia and not join team in Utah, the official told Wojnarowski.
Embiid injured his left knee in the fourth quarter of Tuesday night’s 119-107 loss to the Golden State Warriors.
The injury occurred with 4:04 left in the game as Embiid was being double-teamed by the Warriors’ Jonathan Kuminga and Draymond Green. After Kuminga poked the ball away from him, Embiid fell to the ground to retrieve it, and Kuminga subsequently fell on top of his knee.
Embiid grabbed the knee and was in visible pain. He eventually got up and limped to the locker room and did not return to the game.
Embiid had missed the Sixers’ previous two games because of knee soreness in that same knee.
He finished with 14 points on 5-of-18 shooting to go with 7 rebounds, 2 assists and a team-low minus-21 net rating.
Embiid also missed three games earlier in January due to left knee swelling. ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported that the injury is something Embiid and Philadelphia will have to manage for the remainder of the season.
Embiid, the NBA’s reigning MVP, can miss only five more games before becoming ineligible for postseason awards, including All-NBA team honors and MVP, because of the league’s new rule requiring a minimum of 65 games to qualify.
When healthy, Embiid has continued to perform at an MVP level. He is the NBA’s leading scorer at 35.3 points per game and is averaging 11.3 rebounds and 5.7 assists. He scored a franchise-record 70 points to go along with 18 rebounds on Jan. 22 in a 133-124 victory over the San Antonio Spurs.
The 76ers are 0-4 on their five-game trip.
ESPN’s Kendra Andrews and The Associated Press contributed to this report.