Sixers’ Injury-Free Streak Short-Lived as Embiid Suffers Sprain

For as long as we can remember, the Philadelphia 76ers have had their fair share of injury issues over the years. Specifically, those injuries typically surrounded either a high-profile draft pick or the Sixers' All-Star center, Joel Embiid.

This season, the story was different, though. Those problems didn't necessarily come about early on. Aside from a few minor tweaks, the Sixers mostly remained entirely healthy throughout their few weeks of training camp, in addition to five preseason games.

On Wednesday, the Sixers opened up the 2019-2020 NBA season with a game against the Boston Celtics. Surprisingly, there wasn't a single injury to report the night before as the team made it out of the offseason without any setbacks. You know that's quite the accomplishment in Philly when the crowd goes crazy for an injury report.

Just moments before players took the court during Wednesday night's opener, Sixers' announcer Matt Cord relayed the message that there weren't any players listed on the Sixers injury report. The report warranted loud cheers from the crowd, who were equally as shocked as they were excited to hear that everybody is okay.

It was a scenario that many Sixers fans aren't used to -- It's almost like it was too good to be true. As it turns out -- it was too good to be true. That injury-free streak, which lasted one regular-season game seems to be short-lived as of Friday afternoon.

As the Sixers are set to travel to Detroit to take on the Pistons for Saturday night, they have two players that will be listed as questionable on the injury report. One happens to be reserve forward, Mike Scott, who is dealing with a left ankle sprain. The other? Sixers center, Joel Embiid.

We witnessed Embiid take an elbow to the face on Wednesday night, which caused some minor bleeding, but it didn't take the big man out of the game. However, following the win over the Celtics, Embiid was not available to speak to the media as he had to get his mouth evaluated from the swelling.

Embiid did end up getting stitched up, but his questionable status doesn't stem from his lip laceration. Instead, Embiid is dealing with a right ankle sprain, similar to Mike Scott's. The good news is that the injury concerns do not seem to be anything too serious for the Sixers. The hope in Philly is that it stays that way -- because there's a long season ahead.