The duel between Zaccharie Risacher and Guerschon Yabusele was overshadowed last night by a very sad incident of play. On a back support, during a “drive” by Jalen Johnson, Paul George slightly lost his footing, causing him a “hyperextension” of the left knee which forced him to leave the field prematurely. The verdict quickly fell and the winger was not allowed to return to the field, having to settle for 12 minutes for 8 points scored.
All the theories and worst-case scenarios then began to flourish while waiting for a precise verdict from the Sixers medical staff. Is it a simple hyperextension? Have the ligaments been affected? Depending on the diagnosis, the duration of PG8 unavailability could vary, from a few days to a few weeks, or even several months!
No “back-to-back” this season?
“We hope that it will go well and that he will be able to come back with us straight away”, said Nick NursePhilly coach. For his part, Paul George wanted to reassure everyone: “I felt there was hyperextension and I immediately thought I needed to go out and get checked out, but if you ask me, I'm not too concerned about that.”
The day before, Sixers president Daryl Morey had precisely indicated that the George-Embiid pair, very fragile, would be spared as much as possible in order to avoid injuries. Pure and hard “load management”.
“We are going to proceed intelligently on this subject. One of the points will be to ensure that Paul George and Joel Embiid play as little back-to-back as possible, if not none., he declared.
Suffice to say that the unavailability of Paul George would be a hard blow for Philadelphia one week before the resumption of the regular season. Even though Joel Embiid has still not set foot on the floors.
