76ers’ Joel Embiid leaves Pacers game early with apparent injury

The 2023 league MVP appears to be injured again.

Seven-time Philadelphia 76ers All-Star center Joel Embiid has left his club’s ongoing home game against the Philadelphia 76ers and is heading to the locker room. Indiana shooting guard Bennedict Mathurin appeared to scratch his eyes late in the game’s second quarter.

With the 76ers often missing at least one of their three All-Stars, the team stumbled to a brutal 3-14 start to the season. The team has turned things around a bit, claiming victory in four of the last five contests, making Philadelphia 7-15 on the year.

The Pacers, meanwhile, are heading in the other direction. Indiana is currently 10-15 on the year, good for the Eastern Conference’s no. 9 seed, and has gone just 4-6 across his last 10 contests.

Indiana (ahem) paces Philadelphia by double digits at halftime at the Wells Fargo Center, 61-50, after leading by as many as 13 points.

Embiid and fellow All-Star point guard lead the 76ers at the half with 12 points each. Embiid has scored his on 4-of-9 shooting from the floor (1-of-2 from long range) and 3-of-4 shooting from the charity stripe. He’s also dished out five dimes and grabbed four rebounds in 17:28 of action. All-Star small forward Paul George, signed to a lucrative four-year, $211.6 million max contract in the offseason, has just three points on a measly 1-of-3 shooting from the floor, plus three rebounds, two blocks, an assist and a steal.

All-NBA Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton’s results finally resemble his game in a breakout 2023-24 season. He’s also scored a game-high 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the floor, including a whopping 5-of-10 shooting from deep, while dishing out seven assists, grabbing a pair of rebounds and grabbing a steal. It is already one of his best halves of the year.

Meanwhile, a pair of frontcourt pieces represent Indiana’s only two other scorers in double figures through the game’s first two quarters. All-NBA Pacers power forward Pascal Siakam has 11 points, while backup power forward Obi Toppin has 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field and 2-of-2 shooting from the charity stripe. The Pacers are connecting on 46 percent of their field goal attempts and 38 percent of their 3-point attempts.

As of this writing, Embiid’s fate for the remainder of the game has yet to be determined.

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