Injured Embiid sits out 38th game for 76ers. What does the future hold for the 2-time scoring champ?

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Joel Embiid is out again for the 76ers, his injured left knee again an issue that has stuck the All-Star center’s immediate playing future in limbo.

The 7-foot Embiid underwent testing Monday - with more scheduled for the next day - and was ruled out of Philadelphia’s game against Chicago. The oft-injured Embiid missed his 38th game of the season for the sagging Sixers, and all options - from rest to potential surgery to playing through pain - remain on the table, depending on the results of the testing and imaging.

The question lingers in Philly: Has the seven-time All-Star center played his last game of the season?

"Not at that point, at all," coach Nick Nurse said Monday. "We are playing and testing and trying to figure it out and go from there."

Embiid has played in just 19 of 57 games for the Sixers, who entered Monday at 20-36 and have only a fading shot at earning a berth in the NBA play-in tournament. He’s averaged 23.8 points - he averaged at least 30 and won two scoring titles the last three seasons - and scored only 29 points combined in his last two games.

"I don’t think anybody envisioned it going like this," Nurse said. "It’s disappointing on a lot of levels. He wants to play. We want him to play. Our best version is of with him playing. It hasn’t worked out like that. Yet."

Nurse benched Embiid for the entire fourth quarter in Saturday’s 105-102 loss to Brooklyn. Embiid scored just 14 points in 31 minutes, missed all six 3-point attempts and was a bystander in the fourth when the 76ers rallied from 17 down to take the lead late, until they were finished off by Nic Claxton's winner at the horn.

Embiid has played only 58 regular-season games and seven play-in tournament/playoff games since he earned NBA MVP honors in the 2022-23 season.

Embiid played just 39 games last season due to a torn meniscus in his left knee. The 76ers announced in early February of that season that he had undergone surgery. Embiid came back in early April, was part of the 76ers' playoff run and then won a gold medal with the U.S. Olympic team last summer.

Embiid acknowledged earlier this month that he didn't have enough time to fully recover after undergoing surgery last year.

Embiid hasn't been the only All-Star struggling with his health and performance for the Sixers.

Paul George hasn’t been the scorer he was once was in the first season of his four-year, $212 million contract. He's struggled with injuries and his shot in his first season in Philly and hasn't quite found the groove expected out of the nine-time All-Star. He hasn’t scored more than 17 points since Jan. 24, and three times over that span scored in single digits.

George offered Embiid advice on the how to handle the grind of playing through so many injuries.

"Drugs help me," George said on Saturday. "That's kind of what gets me over the hump. I get it, especially how big he is, the size he is, and how he plays. I know it takes a toll on him."

George said this week he needed pain-killing injections this season to play through an array of injuries, notably tendon damage in his left pinky.

Injury excuses or not, time is running out for the 76ers to make any kind of serious run to the postseason.

"We're still having the same conversations. Here we are, just about 60 games in," George said. "It's unacceptable. Just the amount of layups, uncontested at times, that we give up, it's just unacceptable. It just comes down to what we want to do. Do we want to leave everything on the floor and play as hard as we can and see where that gets us? I'm all for it. But we've got to come together and we've got to play hard."

The 76ers are only 7-8 this season when Embiid, George and 2024 All-Star Tyrese Maxey start together and had lost seven straight games overall headed into Monday. The 76ers’ first-round pick is top-six protected or else it goes to the Oklahoma City Thunder, perhaps one more reason the Sixers could shut down Embiid (and possibly George) and cut their losses on the season.

"It's all been challenging," Nurse said. "The sheer number of guys that have been out and in and out and not playing, then him playing at less than his best, all those things have been a challenge. Just try and figure it out night by night and take it as it comes."