Joel Embiid, Kyle Lowry, and KJ Martin questionable for Friday against Magic

Joel Embiid, Kyle Lowry, and KJ Martin questionable for Friday against Magic

Thanks to a current six-game winning streak, the Philadelphia 76ers have a chance of jumping up to the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference and avoiding the Play-In Tournament. If the Sixers win their final two games, including beating Friday’s opponent, Orlando, they would pass the Magic in the standings by virtue of the regular season tiebreaker (provided there isn’t a three-way tie between Indiana, Orlando, and Philadelphia, in which case Orlando suddenly goes ahead because they’re a division winner, and yes, the NBA still uses divisions for some things). Anyway, Friday’s game is obviously very important, so let’s take at look at Thursday afternoon’s injury report ahead of that contest.

Robert Covington being the only player out is a nice relief to see after the injury reports we’ve been dealing with this season. Tyrese Maxey and his hip are apparently good to go, and Tobias Harris’ knee that caused him to miss three games recently looks to be better. It’s highly encouraging to see De’Anthony Melton with no injury designation after he played 16 minutes in his return against Detroit. Nick Nurse provided an update on Melton earlier in the day on Thursday:

As for the three questionable players, it would be surprising if they all didn’t take the court. Joel Embiid has said he intends to play as many minutes as possible to get in shape for the playoffs. KJ Martin sat out the Detroit game, but that felt like more of a ‘we can afford to do it against the Pistons’ thing. Kyle Lowry has missed the last two games, but with everything that’s riding on this Magic game, I’d expect all of these guys to take the hardwood. We’ll see as further injury reports roll in on Friday.