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Tim BontempsESPN
Philadelphia 76ers star center Joel Embiid will do an MRI after hyperextending his left knee in the 127-101 victory over the Washington Wizards on Friday night, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski
Embiid was in the midst of the most dominant performance of his season of the MVP caliber, scoring 23 points from 8 of 11 shots to go along with 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks in 20 minutes, when he received a pass from Tobias Harris and flew to one dunk to give Philadelphia an 80-60 lead with 6 minutes, 20 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
But when Embiid went to the ground after the dunk, the entire weight of his body fell on his left leg – causing it to overextend, making him fall to the ground with tremendous pain.
After staying down for a few minutes, Embiid finally got up and walked on his own – although limping a lot – as he headed straight back to the visitors’ locker room inside Washington’s Capital One Arena.
Embiid is expected to undergo an MRI scan as soon as the team returns to Philadelphia, the sources said.
Embiid went through a similarly frightening situation last month when he hyperextended his right knee in an awkward fall against the Portland Trail Blazers after blocking a tray from Enes Kanter. In that game, Embiid came back a few minutes later and dominated, scoring 31 points in the first half in a game that Philadelphia ended up losing.
Philadelphia had Embiid back on Friday night, after he and Ben Simmons lost Thursday’s Chicago victory over the Bulls – as well as Sunday’s Atlanta All-Star Game – because of contact tracking from of a barber that both stars visited before going to Atlanta.
Simmons stayed out on Friday, but is expected to return – assuming he doesn’t have a positive test for COVID-19 before that – for Sunday’s game in Philadelphia against the San Antonio Spurs.
The Sixers remained at the top of the Eastern Conference with Friday’s victory, advancing a full game ahead of second-placed Brooklyn Nets.