{"id":101264,"date":"2024-10-15T06:46:25","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T10:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=101264"},"modified":"2024-10-21T13:54:36","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T17:54:36","slug":"sixers-key-player-paul-george-injured-preseason-victory-versus-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/15\/sixers-key-player-paul-george-injured-preseason-victory-versus-hawks\/","title":{"rendered":"Sixers\u2019 Paul George Injured During Victory Over Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After getting off to a slow start, the Philadelphia 76ers managed to defeat <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/y\/youngtr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trae Young<\/a> and the Atlanta Hawks in Monday\u2019s preseason matchup, 104-89.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/maxeyty01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyrese Maxey<\/a> was ice cold, shooting 5-18 from the field while harassed by Atlanta\u2019s hawkish wingspan. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/o\/oubreke01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kelly Oubre Jr.<\/a> wasn\u2019t much better, going 4-12 from the floor and 1-8 from three-point range. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/georgpa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul George<\/a> played a little over 12 minutes after <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ginamizell\/status\/1846002003039997958\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">hyperextending his left knee<\/a>, seemingly while guarding Hawks forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/johnsja05.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jalen Johnson<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">COMPLETE speculation here but&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>This didn&#8217;t look comfortable for Paul George. Hopefully him sitting the second half is unrelated. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Ode0cpYQNK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/Ode0cpYQNK<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fakgqJUstA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/fakgqJUstA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Erin Grugan (@eringrugan) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/eringrugan\/status\/1845995114771960098?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 15, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Yet, Atlanta didn\u2019t put enough pressure on the rim. They didn\u2019t capitalize enough beyond the arc. They didn\u2019t keep the ball out of the Sixers\u2019 hands, with Young and Johnson turning it over 13 times combined.<\/p>\n<p>That wasn\u2019t the case for Philadelphia, especially in the fourth quarter. Playing a unit that included 2024 No. 16 pick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mccaija01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jared McCain<\/a> and Paris Olympics standout <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/y\/yabusgu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Guerschon Yabusele<\/a>, the Sixers outscored the Hawks 29-22 in the final frame while shooting 52.4 percent from the field and 55.6 percent from three. If George hadn\u2019t gotten injured, the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ginamizell\/status\/1846010857630621731\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">mood would be much lighter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Sixers\u2019 Paul George Injured During Preseason Victory Over Hawks<\/h2>\n<p>Following the game, Sixers head coach Nick Nurse reflected on George\u2019s knee injury, saying: \u201cCertainly trying to work him into things, and he wants to work into things too. So this doesn\u2019t give him a chance to do that. Hopefully it\u2019ll be OK so he\u2019s back with us right away\u201d (h\/t The Philadelphia Inquirer\u2019s Gina Mizell).<\/p>\n<p>George sounded more assured of his health status, telling Mizell that he\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ginamizell\/status\/1846015953340973060\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">not too concerned<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Him walking off the court under his own weight after the injury and still walking around postgame alleviates some concern. Yet, his words and resilience aren\u2019t convincing enough, particularly with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/23\/sixers-highlights-paul-george-introductory-conference\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">his lengthy injury history<\/a>. Until the results of his MRI come back clean, everyone associated with the Sixers will be on the edge of their seat.<\/p>\n<p>That being said, the perennial All-Star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inquirer.com\/sixers\/sixers-hawks-score-preseason-paul-geroge-injury-tyrese-maxey-kelly-oubre-20241014.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">confirmed that he sustained his injury<\/a> in the second quarter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI reach for [the ball], poked it out,\u201d George says. \u201cWent to go take a step to go kind of burst through, and then my leg kind of hyperextended back. I felt that it hyperextended, and immediately, it was, \u2018All right, I need to get taken out and look at this.\u2019<\/p>\n<h3>Turning Problems Into Promise<\/h3>\n<p>Ironically, George\u2019s injury came on the heels of a report that he nor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/e\/embiijo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joel Embiid<\/a> were likely to play both legs of back-to-backs this season. In fact, in Embiid\u2019s case, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/14\/sixers-joel-embiid-stunning-admission-tu-paul-george\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">he may never do so again<\/a>. With the Sixers having 15 back-to-backs this season, that means that they\u2019ll likely be down two stars in one-sixth of their games.<\/p>\n<p>This will likely affect their win-loss record. Last season, Philadelphia went just 16-27 without Embiid.<\/p>\n<p>However, games like Monday\u2019s give the Sixers a chance to see who can step up in George and Embiid\u2019s absence. While they were undressing the Hawks, it was McCain and Yabusele. On a different night, it may be a different duo, but Monday was still a promising sign of their ability to survive without their two best players.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After getting off to a slow start, the Philadelphia 76ers managed to defeat Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks in Monday\u2019s preseason matchup, 104-89. Tyrese Maxey was ice cold, shooting 5-18 from the field while harassed by Atlanta\u2019s hawkish wingspan. Kelly Oubre Jr. wasn\u2019t much better, going 4-12 from the floor and 1-8 from three-point [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":101266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,4,1608,62,3],"tags":[797,3853,49067,267,4745,48967,50],"class_list":["post-101264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-76ers","category-hawks","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-guerschon-yabusele","tag-jalen-johnson","tag-jared-mccain","tag-joel-embiid","tag-nba-injuries","tag-nba-preseason","tag-paul-george"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}