Joel Embiid and Jerryd Bayless were surprise additions to the Sixers’ medical report on Monday afternoon.

Embiid was limited in practice due to “load management” and will miss tomorrow’s game against the Jazz.

“He will not be playing in Utah,” Brett Brown told reporters. “We went through a practice today, and like everybody, we shared around the load. He looked okay, but (we’re) trying to grow his base and handle the practice that we just had accordingly, where it’s spread out amongst a few people, some for Joel’s concerns and some just because we don’t want to wear a (guy like) Ben Simmons down.”

That decision might seem a bit strange considering the fact that Embiid put up 21 and 12 in a career-high 30 minutes on Wednesday night, then went for 18/9/5 in 28 minutes on Friday night with 48 hours rest.

Embiid will have 72 hours rest going into Tuesday night’s game, which will be played at altitude in Salt Lake City.

I asked Brown if the weekend rest made the optics of the decision look a bit muddy.

“I mean I really just follow, like I always tell you, the instruction of our medical people and there is completely a thought-out plan of why this plan has been recommended,” Brown replied. “If it requires more information, they will be the ones to explain why they’ve decided to make this recommendation.”

Seems like a conditioning thing, but even if Embiid is playing at altitude, could he give you ten minutes tomorrow night?

Maybe it just made more sense to hold him out entirely and get him ready for Sacramento and Golden State.

“If you are half pregnant”

Jerryd Bayless injured his wrist running through a screen in the fourth quarter of Friday night’s win.

It’s the same left wrist that was surgically repaired last year and shut him down for the season. X-rays taken after the game were negative, though he is experiencing “continued discomfort” and had a CT scan and MRI Monday morning. He’s being ruled out for “at least” tomorrow night’s game.

Here’s how he hurt himself:

Bayless drew a foul on the play and was praised by Brown Monday.

“He did what you hope your guys do,” the head coach said. “You war through screens, and it produced an offensive foul by the screener. So if you are half-pregnant, like faking wanting to get through it, you’re either all in or you’re not, then you won’t get that call. In that case, he dipped his shoulder, he got through it, exposed the foul, but along the way he hurt his wrist. It’s a tough break, but it’s one of those things that Luwawu, and Stauskas, and Justin Anderson, that’s why you have a team and these guys are in shape, their attitudes have been great, their fitness level is great, even though they haven’t played, the system caters for all that. They will come into the mix and that’s why you have 15 players.”

 

Markelle Fultz lefty-gate

Markelle Fultz was on a separate court doing some VERY light work while the Sixers finished practice. I’d say he was putting about 10% of his energy into some basic movement and layup drills, sort of like how you’d warm-up if you were doing shootaround before a charity basketball game.

A couple of reporters noticed that he was taking some left-handed jump shots, which is not Fultz’s shooting hand.

Here, he takes a right-handed heave towards the basket before trying some lefty J’s:

Apparently Fultz isn’t cleared to shoot jumpers with his right-hand yet, which is why he was playing around at the end of practice.

Brett Brown was asked straight-up if there was an issue.

Rich Hofmann (The Athletic): Is there anything to read into Markelle shooting left handed jumpers over there?

Brown: “Nah.”

Hofmann: “Is he just messing around, or –

Brown: “I don’t even know. I haven’t even seen it. But I can tell you there’s nothing to read into it.”

Good on Rich for asking what needed to be asked. It wasn’t long ago that Brown said not to worry about Fultz tweaking his shooting mechanics, and we all know how that turned out.

So it’s not necessarily shit-stirring by the Sixers media corps. Unfortunately it’s almost due diligence now based on the events of the last four weeks.