Philadelphia 76ers star center Joel Embiid will undergo an MRI after hyperextending his left knee in Friday night’s game against the Washington Wizards, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Embiid was in the midst of the last dominant performance of his MVP caliber season, scoring 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting to guide seven rebounds, three assists and two blocks in 20 minutes when he caught and flew a pass from Tobias Harris for a dunk to give Philadelphia an 80-60 lead with 6:20 remaining in the third quarter.
But when Embiid fell to the ground after the dunk, the full weight of his body landed on his left leg, hyperextending him, causing him to fall to the floor and wriggle in pain.
After lying on the floor for a few minutes, Embiid finally got to his feet and walked away on his own, albeit with a rather pronounced limp, as he walked straight back to the visitors’ locker room in Washington’s Capital One Arena.
Embiid is expected to undergo the MRI once the team travels back to Philadelphia, the sources said.
Embiid had an equally terrifying situation last month when he hyperextended his right knee in an awkward knockout against the Portland Trail Blazers after blocking an Enes Kanter layout. In that game, Embiid came back a few minutes later and dominated, scoring 31 runs in the first half in a game that Philadelphia lost.
Philadelphia got Embiid back on Friday night after he and Ben Simmons missed Thursday’s victory in Chicago over the Bulls, as well as Sunday’s All-Star Game in Atlanta, due to contact tracking of a hairdresser both stars visited before heading to Atlanta.
Simmons remained out on Friday, but was expected to return, assuming he didn’t test positive for COVID-19 by then, ahead of Sunday’s game in Philadelphia against the San Antonio Spurs.
The Sixers will stay atop the Eastern Conference on Friday-evening with a win, putting them a complete game ahead of second-place Brooklyn Nets.