Sixers

Doc Rivers Hints at a Saturday Joel Embiid Return

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Mar 29th, 2021 · 2:29 PM EDT

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The Sixers remain on the west coast, four games into a six-game road swing.

They’ve got Denver Tuesday night and Cleveland on Thursday, before returning to Philadelphia for a weekend back-to-back against Minnesota and Memphis.

Doc Rivers just wrapped up a post-practice Zoom call and dropped a nugget about Joel Embiid’s status, revealing that the rotation could be back to “normal” for Saturday’s game:

Interesting quote from Rivers: “A week ago, we had four centers. Now we’re down to two. Without Joel, we’re down to one and a bunch of small guys. That’s just what we are for the next two games probably and then we’re back to our normal rotation.”

Might Embiid be back Saturday?

— Rich Hofmann (@rich_hofmann) March 29, 2021

Embiid hasn’t played since the Washington win, which was March 12th. If he returns for the Minnesota game, it means he will have missed 10 games over the course of 22 days.

That’s not bad, not after everybody was fearing the worst when he went down. The Sixers have so far gone 6-2 in his absence, losing to the Clippers on the road and the Bucks at home, in overtime.

And they’re still first place in the east, a game ahead of the Brooklyn Nets, who added Blake Griffin recently also went out and brought in LaMarcus Aldridge as well.

Regarding Hill, Rivers said he expects the veteran point guard to join the squad after the road trip. Hill has to get back into playing shape after missing the entirety of February and March with a thumb injury. He had surgery to repair the issue, which lengthened his recovery but ensured there would not be any lingering issues. He last played on January 24th and is averaging 12 points and three assists this season while shooting 38.6% from three.

If Hill doesn’t play this weekend, his next shot at a Sixers debut would be April 6th, in Boston, which kicks off a four-game road trip.