Sixers’ Joel Embiid sits out NBA playoff Game 3 against Brooklyn Nets with left knee tendinitis
Greg Monroe started in the All-Star center's place.
NEW YORK -- Joel Embiid missed Game 3 of the 76ers’ opening-round playoff series against the Brooklyn Nets with tendinitis in his left knee.
Greg Monroe started in place of the two-time All-Star center in the game at the Barclays Center.
Embiid was ruled out 15 minutes before the start of Thursday’s game. He had been a game-time decision in the first two contests of the series.
“It’s tough,” he said an hour before the game about the uncertainty of playing. “That is what tendinitis is all about. You know, some days you’ve got your days and some other days are different.”
“ Even the games I play, I try to play for these guys and try to help us win the series and whatever I can do.”
But Embiid added that he will keep pushing.
Embiid has been hampered by a sore knee all season and had missed 14 of the team’s final 24 regular-season games. Game 4 of the series is Saturday. The series is split at 1-1.
He averaged 22.5 points, 12.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.5 blocks in the first two games of the series.
Embiid did say his knee is getting better, slowly but surely.
“But we have to be smart how we handle it every single day," he said. “I am sure these guys wouldn’t let me get on the court if there was a chance of anything bad happening. So I have to trust the process.”
Embiid averaged 27.5 points, 13.6 rebounds and 1.91 blocked shots this season.