Wow well, what a whirlwind for the Sixers. On Monday they fell to the Spurs in a game that had a lot of energy while it lasted. Victor Wembanyama was excellent until he left the game with a rib injury. Joel Embiid was looking fairly strong too. The San Antonio crowd was really loud and enthusiastic.
The Spurs have proven quite capable without Wembanyama but the Sixers had everyone on the court and still couldn't get it done. Not ideal to say the least.
Now it's reported that Joel Embiid has appendicitis and has to have an emergency appendectomy. Man, just crazy. Terrible luck for Embiid and this team. I've heard that appendicitis is quite painful and a surgery like that definitely takes time to recover from. I wouldn't say it's typically a season ender, but being that the season is already nearing it's end, the timing is pretty terrible. Of course I hope Embiid recovers swiftly and everything goes well for him. His injury luck is pretty wild. Maybe he can shock everyone and heal incredibly fast or something. If the Sixers were to make it to a Conference Finals I imagine maybe he could be back for that, but I'm the certainly not a doctor and the Sixers making it to the Conference Finals without Embiid seems pretty unlikely.
In fact right now the Sixers aren't even in a genuine playoff position as they are actually sitting in eighth. From what I understand if they win these last three in a row, the odds are pretty good for them, but that's easier said than done of course. The whole situation is pretty confusing and messy. All they can control is what's in front of them and hope for the best. The Play-In of course is already clinched at least.
Tonight's game is the hardest game for them of the remaining three as they are in Houston to face the 50-29 Rockets. The Rockets will be playing hard I imagine since as far as I can tell they could finish as high as the third seed, currently they're fifth. There's a very slim chance they could drop to sixth and of course they could finish in fourth too. So yeah, they want this game.
The Sixers want this game too. They are used to playing without Joel and Paul George has looked very good. Besides Joel the squad is quite healthy.
As a fan, I'll just enjoy the game. Not many left!