CAMDEN, N.J. — It remains to be seen if the Sixers will (finally) have their three bigs available to play Friday against the Lakers.
Nerlens Noel is questionable with a sprained left ankle he suffered in his season debut on Sunday. He did not play Wednesday against the Raptors.
“I think tomorrow night’s in the air,” Noel said Thursday. “I had a decent day today. I felt not too bad, but there’s definitely still some soreness that hopefully doesn’t limit me in the morning. So I’ll see how I feel at shootaround tomorrow and just go from there.”
Noel said he went through “mostly everything” in practice on Thursday. He expects his availability to depend on his effectiveness and explosiveness coming off his ankle.
Noel missed the first 23 games of the season recovering from elective arthroscopic left knee surgery. The Sixers have two games in the next three days, and he would rather be cautious than play on his ankle too soon.
“Obviously at this point there’s no reason to rush anything,” Noel said. “I’ve gotten through everything I’ve gotten through with my knee, so ankles are a day-to-day thing. If it’s Friday or Sunday, it doesn’t make that big a difference.”
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While Joel Embiid has been banged up, he is expected to play against the Lakers. He bumped knees with Dario Saric at the end of practice and both are listed as probable (Embiid left knee contusion; Saric right shin contusion). Embiid said he plans to be available.
“(I feel) not good, but I’m fine,” Embiid said. “We just bumped both of our knees, but I’m fine.”
Embiid also twisted his left ankle during Wednesday’s pregame warmups and aggravated it during the game. In addition, he suffered a bloody nose and took a tumble diving into the stands for the ball.
“Tough as s---,” Noel said of Embiid. “He’s a big boy. He’ll throw himself around. He’ll take a big collision and get right back up.”
