Tyrese Maxey's Injury Diagnoses Affected Joel Embiid on Saturday

After hearing the news about Tyrese Maxey on Saturday, Joel Embiid felt for his teammate.

Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid has a lot on his plate currently. A couple of weeks ago, while the big man was battling the flu, Sixers guard James Harden went out with an injury that was diagnosed as a tendon strain in his foot.

As a result, Harden is facing a one-month timeline for return. In the absence of Harden, Embiid and the third-year guard Tyrese Maxey had to step up and expand their roles. Unfortunately, the latter player is now dealing with a critical injury of his own.

During the first half of the Sixers’ Friday night matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks, Maxey suffered a foot injury, which ended his night prematurely. After getting an MRI on Saturday, Maxey was diagnosed with a small fracture in his foot.

Now, Maxey’s guaranteed to miss at least two weeks. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, he could miss up to four weeks worth of games. 

“It really hit me when I heard the news about him missing some time,” said Sixers center Joel Embiid after Saturday night’s loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. “Starting the game, I really wasn’t in the game to start the game.”

Prior to his injury on Friday night, Maxey was averaging a career-high of 23 points per game while draining 45 percent of his shots and 41 percent of his threes. Knowing how hard Maxey works on his game day in and day out, Embiid felt for his teammate after hearing the unfortunate news. 

“I just felt bad because you got three of our best players, you know, Tyrese is someone that puts in so much work every single day,” Embiid continued. “Injuries are just, you can’t control it. It’s just unfortunate. I had my share of them, especially freak injuries. You just can’t control it. I just felt bad for him because he puts so much work in and takes care of himself. Obviously, missing James to the same thing, Tobias being hurt too, it does suck. But it’s the next man up.”

The Sixers’ next-man-up mentality worked on Friday night against the Milwaukee Bucks as they picked up their third-straight win. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find the same success on Saturday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Without Maxey, Harden, and Harris, the 76ers came up short with a 112-109 loss. With that loss, the Sixers dropped to 8-8 on the year. 

As for Maxey, his recovery begins, and he’ll be re-evaluated in two weeks.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.