Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid continues to recover from the gruesome injury to his left hand he suffered Monday against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Embiid has been ruled out for Thursday’s home game with the Boston Celtics (7 ET, TNT) and Serena Winters of NBC Sports Philadelphia reports he is seeing a specialist for his injury.
Joel Embiid (left ring finger injury) is OUT for tomorrow’s game vs. Boston.
He is currently seeing a specialist. #Sixers
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) January 8, 2020
The All-Star center dislocated his finger in the first quarter, but returned to start the second quarter. The injury did prevent him from playing with his usual force on the glass and he lost a bunch of rebounds to Steven Adams in that game.
He missed the Sixers’ practice on Tuesday to undergo further off-site evaluation of the injury, per Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Embiid finished Monday’s game with 18 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in the 120-113 win, but said after the game there was a chance he would not play vs. Boston.
There was a measure of good news on Wednesday for the Sixers, though, as rookie Matisse Thybulle was a full participant in practice for the second consecutive day. He is expected to be able to play against Boston.
Matisse Thybulle was a full participant in #Sixers practice today & is expected to be available tomorrow.
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) January 8, 2020
Thybulle has missed seven straight games because of a right knee sprain and bone bruise. When he was diagnosed with the injury in late December, Thybulle was expected to miss at least two weeks.
The 22-year-old guard has been a spark of energy for the Sixers this season with averages of 4.8 points and 1.4 steals in 17.6 minutes over 30 games.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
