Sixers' Joel Embiid and Paul George will face Cavaliers for knee injury management

The 76ers‘ uphill struggle just turned into a climb of Mount Everest.

Already understaffed, the Sixers have now added multi-year All-Stars Joel Embid And Paul George added to the list of players who will be unavailable against the undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers. The Sixers, for their part, have the Eastern Conference’s second-worst record at 2-8, despite being favored to compete for an NBA title.

All-Star point guard Tyrese Maxeywho is sidelined with a right hamstring strain, was already expected to miss Wednesday night’s game at the Wells Fargo Center. He will be re-evaluated in the coming days but is expected to miss another week.

Meanwhile, Cleveland’s Max Strus (right ankle sprain) is out of the game and Jarrett Allen (lower left leg strain) and Sam Merrill (left ankle soreness) are questionable.

Meanwhile, Embiid and George will miss Wednesday’s game as part of their left knee injury management plan.

This comes after Embiid made his season debut in Tuesday’s 111-99 loss to the New York Knicks at the Center. The seven-foot center was noticeably rusty, out of shape and timid in his first match since winning a gold medal with Team USA in the Paris competition. Olympic Games on August 11. Embiid finished with 13 points, three rebounds, five assists, one block and two turnovers while playing just 26 minutes and 245 seconds due to a minutes restriction.

The fact that Embiid is sidelined against the Cavs (12-0) should come as no surprise. The 2023 league MVP said during training camp that he would not play in either game scheduled on back-to-back nights. However, he tried to retract that statement after Tuesday’s loss, saying he wanted to play against Cleveland.

Like Embiid, George was also not expected to play Wednesday as part of the Sixers’ load management plan to keep them healthy for the postseason. The forward is having his best game of the season, producing season highs of 29 points and 10 rebounds, along with three assists, three steals and a block against the Knicks. That was George’s fifth game back after missing the first five games after hyperextending his left knee in the preseason, causing a bone bruise.

But he isn’t the only member of the Big Three who has missed significant time. Embiid missed the entire preseason and the first nine games. He appeared in six games for what the team called left knee injury management served a three-match suspension for pushing Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes into the Sixers’ locker room on Nov. 2. Wednesday will also be the fourth game Maxey misses following his hamstring injury against the Los Angeles Clippers on November 6.