Joel Embiid had successful surgery Friday afternoon in New York for a torn radial collateral ligament of the fourth metacarpal on his left hand, a team source told NBC Sports Philadelphia. The Sixers' center will be re-evaluated in 1-2 weeks.
Embiid was in New York on Thursday night during the Sixers' win over the Boston Celtics, though he FaceTimed into the team's locker room after the game.
He suffered the injury Monday night when the Sixers played the Thunder and stayed in the game despite experiencing a high level of pain.
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The Sixers are 25-14 this year and 4-4 without Embiid.
Head coach Brett Brown said before Thursday's game that he's prepared to put a "blowtorch" on the Sixers' normal defensive principles, and we saw vs. the Celtics that the team's approach was much different with Al Horford as its starting center.
"Whether somebody is going to switch or somebody’s going to quick hedge, somebody’s back a little bit in a corral type thing like Al — everybody had to react to kind of a different game plan," Brown said. "We’ve got Al up, now what? And the defense behind it, now what? And it’s something that I thought our defense did a really good job with.”
Mike Scott was the Sixers' fifth starter against the Celtics, scoring seven points in 26 minutes.
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Brown also experimented with Ben Simmons as a small-ball center, a look that he said, "I suspect you'll see again." Two-way player Norvel Pelle was Horford's main backup and provided energy, rim protection and a screening and rolling threat (see story).
The Sixers will play the Mavericks on Saturday night (8:30 p.m/NBCSP) and the Pacers on Monday (7 p.m./NBCSP+) before returning home for games vs. Brooklyn and Chicago.
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