Sixers Confirm Joel Embiid’s Status Before Rivalry Matchup Vs. Celtics

BOSTON — Neither the Celtics nor the 76ers entered Friday night’s rivalry battle at full strength, but the biggest question centered around the status of reigning league MVP Joel Embiid and whether or not he’d suit up.

Embiid did travel with Philadelphia to Boston, but he wasn’t present during the morning shootaround due to an illness. Yet, Embiid’s game time status wasn’t revealed until 76ers head coach Nick Nurse addressed Embiid — and others — officially.

“Joel is not going to through warmups. … I expect him to not play,” Nurse confirmed 90 minutes before tip-off at TD Garden.

Nurse also noted that guards Tyrese Maxey and Nicholas Batum would undergo pregame warmups before the Sixers made an official status decision. Listed as questionable before Philadelphia arrived in Boston, Maxey joined Embiid and ended up ruled out following warmups.

But even that isn’t the end of Philadelphia’s early-season feud with the injury report.

Sixers forward Danuel House (quadriceps) and guard Kelly Oubre (ribs) were both listed as out, adding to a six-man injury report fresh off Philadephia’s loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday night.

“This is a game and it’s on the schedule, we gotta play it, everything’s not perfect all the time and the one good part of (it) is we have four days in between our next game,” Nurse added. “… It’s a long season and you’re going to have to get through some games like this as a player and I think that’s kind of our mentality about it.”

Adversity, however, is nothing new to the 76ers this season.

Before the season kicked off, Philadelphia watched from the sidelines as Eastern Conference foes such as the Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks bolstered their respective roster. Meanwhile, the 76ers sat back and underwent the latest James Harden saga before striking an inevitable departure to then re-direct focus on the 2023-24 campaign.