What’s Joel Embiid timeline to return? What steps should he take? A local surgeon weighs in.
The Sixers entered the NBA playoffs with grand designs on making a deep postseason run and contending for a title. Can Embiid return and keep them on that trajectory?
The 76ers entered the postseason with unbridled optimism. They believed they were one of the few teams with a legitimate chances of winning the NBA title.
A lot of that confidence centered on Joel Embiid being somewhat healthy. Not only did the Sixers have the presumptive MVP, they held the expectation that he would lead his teammates deep into the postseason.
The Sixers weren’t boisterous. They just had real confidence that things would go well this season. Now, they’re dealing with the uncertainty that comes with Embiid’s right knee injury.
What are the steps the center has to take to be available to play in the Eastern Conference semifinals, which begin Monday against the winner of the series between the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks? Could he re-injure his knee or make it worse by playing? And what about his mobility?
Embiid sprained his LCL when he tangled legs with Cam Johnson and fell to the court underneath the basket while defending the Brooklyn Nets guard in Game 3 of their first-round series. When he got up, he was writhing in pain.
» READ MORE: Joel Embiid suffered LCL sprain and could wear brace in Sixers’ second-round series, sources confirm
“Without examining him, it’s probably a Grade 1 or 2 sprain.” said Dr. Fotios Tjoumakaris, a sports medicine surgeon at Rothman Orthopeadic Institute with expertise in shoulder, knee, and hip arthroscopy.
A Grade 1 sprain is a slight stretch of the ligament. A Grade 2 would be a partial tear of the ligament.
“And that, honestly, is really about tolerance for pain,” he said of both grades. “Sometimes what you would do is brace an athlete like that to give him support out of the knee, like a hinge brace that would provide some structural support.”
The timeline to return, Tjoumakaris said, could be a matter of when the inflammation subsides, if a player is confident with the knee and can jump, land, stop, and start. Once a player does those things well, he said, you may test the knee at practice.
On Tuesday, Embiid watched film with teammates but didn’t participate in practice. Following the session, he worked out in the weight room with Sixers head athletic trainer Kevin Johnson. On Wednesday, Embiid did some light shooting on the side while his teammates practiced.
Monday will be nine days since he suffered the injury. If Embiid rushed back, there’s always the threat that he could re-injure the knee in practice.
But ...
“It would be a specific thing that would cause that to re-injure, like you basically twisting your knee awkwardly,” Tjoumakaris said. “LCLs are a risk always kind of in the same way, like if your knee was to buckle to the outside instead of an MCL where your knee gets buckled to the inside. So if you came down awkwardly on that leg, let’s say he came down on another player’s foot, which happens a lot in basketball, your knee could sort of twist outward. If that happens, that could strain it.
“That’s why the brace might give some added support.”
It’s also why the Sixers and their fans were elated to see the Hawks defeat the Celtics, 119-117, Tuesday night to force a Game 6 in the first-round series. Boston clings to a 3-2 series advantage. If the Celtics would have clinched Tuesday, the conference semifinals would have begun on Saturday in Boston.
Embiid tweeted on Tuesday night: “This is some good hoops!!!#IceTrae” after Atlanta’s Trae Young scored 38 points, including the decisive basket.
“That’s why he’s excited about having some extra time because every day that he can get where that ligament can heal a little bit, where the inflammation can quiet down,” Tjoumakaris said, “then that’s another day where he’s closer to being back on the court, which is nice. So it really a day-by-day, week-by-week thing.”
But once play begins, the conference semifinal schedule won’t be ideal for Embiid’s knee.
The first six games are scheduled for every other day, meaning just one day of rest between games. Game 2 will be on May 3. Games 3 and 4 will be on May 5 and 7. If needed, Game 5 would be May 9. Game 6 would be May 11, and Game 7 would be played on May 14.
» READ MORE: The Sixers have no shot without Joel Embiid. The real question is, how much of him do they need?
“Certainly a schedule playing on it every [other] day does put you in a little higher risk, [but] not necessarily of injuring it further,” Tjoumakaris said. “I wouldn’t say it’s the Kevin Durant thing where he partially tore his Achilles then went on and completely ruptured it. It’s just more reaggravation of the same injury. So it’s sort of one of those things that if his symptoms can tolerate him doing that.
“But I will say this, Patrick Mahomes got through the Super Bowl with a high ankle sprain, which is very unusual to be able to play on a sort of injury like that. I wouldn’t say this is as painful as that, but certain things might give him pause or discomfort like twisting, jumping, landing, those kind of things.”
Embiid will likely encounter specific moments. His mobility may also limit his ability to twist and make moves to the basket. The Sixers will see how he first performs in practice and then in the games.
“And it could be to the point where he gets further along in the series that he feels good,” Tjoumakaris said, “it may bother him less and less week to week.”
The Sixers may still be one of the NBA’s elite postseason squads and have a chance of winning a title. But their fate just might depend on Embiid’s ability to manage the pain and, at times, his limited mobility.