{"id":162774,"date":"2025-10-14T17:16:51","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T21:16:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=162774"},"modified":"2025-10-14T17:16:51","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T21:16:51","slug":"joel-embiid-may-play-76ers-preseason-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/10\/14\/joel-embiid-may-play-76ers-preseason-finale\/","title":{"rendered":"Joel Embiid May Play In 76ers Preseason Finale"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past year and a half, Philadelphia 76ers center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/e\/embiijo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joel Embiid<\/a> has been talked about like a man whose career <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/02\/joel-embiid-retirement\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">is on the ropes<\/a>. At 31 years old, Embiid definitely isn&#8217;t a young lion. Yet, he&#8217;s talented enough to play in the league for several more years. That is, if health permits.<\/p>\n<h2>Joel Embiid May Play In 76ers Preseason Finale<\/h2>\n<p>This offseason, NBA fans haven&#8217;t seen much of Embiid. Not even on Twitter. In mid-August, he received <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/08\/16\/things-look-good-for-sixers-centerpiece-joel-embiid\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">a promising injury update<\/a> after being limited to 19 games last season. However, this past weekend was the first time that people were able to see him on the court since Feb. 22.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Joel Embiid looking healthy during 76ers scrimmage <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MgtDBlePUh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/MgtDBlePUh<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBAbzy (@nbabzyy) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nbabzyy\/status\/1977545436467778027?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 13, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, Embiid took part in the Sixers&#8217; Blue-White scrimmage. Visibly slimmer, a strategy that could <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/25\/can-joel-embiid-avoid-radical-surgery-demarcus-cousins-advice\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">reduce the strain on his knees<\/a> and improve his mobility, he was moving well on the court. Though he&#8217;s only dunked 24 times in the past two seasons, he even got above the rim for a flush. Notably, he played alongside 2024 No. 41 pick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bonaad01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Adem Bona<\/a> in double-big lineups, moving to power forward in those situations.<\/p>\n<h3>&#8216;Continuing To Cross Thresholds&#8217;<\/h3>\n<p>&#8220;From all accounts, he responded fine&#8221; to the scrimmage, 76ers head coach Nick Nurse tells reporters (h\/t PHLY Sixers). &#8220;He was in practice again today, looking good, feeling good. So, he just did the beginning parts of practice today but that&#8217;s as planned, right? But I do think he responded well to it&#8230; We&#8217;re continuing to cross thresholds.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Nick Nurse says that there&#8217;s a chance that Joel Embiid could play in the final preseason game \ud83d\udc40<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think there&#8217;s some chance, yeah. I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;re there yet. It&#8217;s a little early in the week to decide&#8230;We got some thresholds to get over before we get to that point.&#8221; <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pB2ZBaEEV8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/pB2ZBaEEV8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 PHLY Sixers (@PHLY_Sixers) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PHLY_Sixers\/status\/1978152746244018418?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 14, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Asked if Embiid could play in the team&#8217;s preseason finale against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday, Nurse says: &#8220;I think there&#8217;s <em>some<\/em> chance, yeah. I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;re there yet. It&#8217;s a little early in the week to decide but I think it could still go either way. We got some thresholds to get over yet, I think, before we get to that point.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>The Last Word On Joel Embiid&#8217;s Potential Preseason Appearance<\/h3>\n<p>Honestly, Nurse didn&#8217;t sound very confident in Embiid making an on-court appearance in Philly&#8217;s preseason finale. However, he did entertain the idea enough for it to sound like a legitimate possibility. The &#8220;thresholds&#8221; that he mentioned Embiid needs to pass weren&#8217;t detailed but they may have to do with how he moves and feels after certain events. After all, the Sixers star&#8217;s primary issue is figuring out how to manage his rickety knees.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\ud83d\udea8 Joel Embiid has joined the 1 v 1 battles and\u2026it\u2019s tough to stop him <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KFsCs4uCT9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/KFsCs4uCT9<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KyleNeubeck\/status\/1978142061254656175?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 14, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>All of that being said, Embiid was seen going 1-on-1 with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/o\/oubreke01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kelly Oubre Jr.<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/georgpa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul George<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/maxeyty01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyrese Maxey<\/a> after the team completed practice on Tuesday (h\/t Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports). With him playing in a live scrimmage on Sunday and appearing to have no setbacks since then, he&#8217;s seemingly still on the right trajectory.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 Bill Streicher-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past year and a half, Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid has been talked about like a man whose career is on the ropes. At 31 years old, Embiid definitely isn&#8217;t a young lion. Yet, he&#8217;s talented enough to play in the league for several more years. That is, if health permits. Joel Embiid [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":162777,"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":[13,1608,62,3],"tags":[267,4745,48967,1612],"class_list":["post-162774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-76ers","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-joel-embiid","tag-nba-injuries","tag-nba-preseason","tag-nick-nurse"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162774","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=162774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162778,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162774\/revisions\/162778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}