George avoided structural damage to a knee, suffered a bone bruise in Atlanta originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Paul George’s preseason injury was not of the catastrophic variety.
After George hyperextended his left knee Monday night in the The Sixers’ exhibition win over the Hawksa team official offered the following update on Tuesday:
“An MRI completed today showed bone bruising and no structural damage to Paul George’s left knee. He will be reassessed in about a week.”
That means George won’t play in either of the Sixers’ final two preseason games Wednesday against the Nets and Friday at the Magic. The team’s regular season will begin on October 23 against the Bucks in Philadelphia.
In his preseason Sixers debut, George scored 23 points against the Timberwolves and looked like his smooth, agile self. He left his second demo game after taking an awkward step and hyperextending his knee when competing with Atlanta’s Jalen Johnson for a loose ball.
“He’s a bucket maker,” Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said Tuesday of George. “That we know. I think he’s one of those guys that’s trying to figure out exactly what fits, trying to figure out exactly how much he has to do. … But he was really good, man. He is very good defensively in many ways. He’s a really smart team defender. He is intelligent on the ball.
“I’m impressed with his willingness to rebound on both ends. … He was incredible until practice. Really attentive, really focused, does a little bit of everything, little thing we’re asking him to do – every rep, every property. It’s great.”
The Sixers said Sunday that Joel Embiid will not play this preseason “as part of his left knee management.”
Embiid had a post-practice conversation Monday with All-Star Tyrese Maxey before going through an individual workout.
Without Embiid, the Sixers used Andre Drummond and Guerschon Yabusele as their primary centers. Nurse started Maxey, Eric Gordon, Kelly Oubre Jr., Caleb Martin and Drummond in the second half against the Hawks.
“It’s not that I don’t take it very seriously … but I’m trying to experiment and gather tons of information now, which we’ve done the last two games,” he said. “So it’s probably fluid with everything.”
