With Embiid out, ‘rookie of the year’ McCain stars

PHILADELPHIA — At the start of the third quarter of what ultimately became a 113-98 victory for the 76ers over Brooklyn, Philadelphia announced that star center Joel Embiid was dealing with swelling in his left knee and, in addition to sitting out the Nets game, would sit out Sunday against the LA Clippers.

“He was dealing with some swelling in his knee today, got to the arena and was ruled out,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said after the win, one that ended a five-game losing streak. “They’re going to treat it all weekend, so he’ll be out for Sunday as well.

“Hopefully on Monday, we’ll give you an update on where we’re at and hopefully he’ll be in good shape.”

Embiid originally wasn’t listed on the injury report Friday morning after he played 35 minutes and scored 35 points with 11 rebounds in a loss at Memphis on Wednesday. He was put on the injury report later Friday for left knee injury management, with the team saying he was present for shootaround but didn’t participate.

Later, Nurse said his expectation was Embiid would warm up and then a determination would be made on his status. But Embiid never took the court and was ruled out about 30 minutes before tipoff.

“He had some swelling from the last game,” Nurse said. “It’s kind of something we knew we were going to be dealing with going into the season. They do what they can do to remove that swelling, but it just didn’t feel good enough to go. We were pretty well aware of that not too much longer after [my pregame] press conference that he wasn’t going to be able to go tonight

“Then, they obviously looked at it again during the game and halftime and decided that they needed to treat it this weekend, and go from there.”

Philadelphia also will be without Paul George on Sunday against his former team, after he sustained a bone bruise in his left knee Wednesday at Memphis. An MRI showed no structural damage, and George was ruled out for at least two games.

But despite not having two of their stars, the 76ers (3-12) began the climb out of the massive hole they have dug themselves behind yet another stellar performance from rookie guard Jared McCain, one of the biggest surprises of the young NBA season.

McCain, the No. 16 pick out of Duke, finished with 30 points — the seventh consecutive game he has scored at least 20 points, including each of his first five NBA starts — to help Philadelphia overcome 37 points from Nets forward Cam Johnson and get a desperately needed win.

Late in the fourth quarter, after hitting one of his six 3-pointers, McCain was caught on camera saying, “I’m rookie of the year!” and sheepishly admitted to it after the game.

“I did say that,” he said with a smile. “I did. It was pretty clear.

“It’s one of my goals for the season, obviously, but it was just that competitiveness coming out of me. I respect every other rookie in this league, but obviously I’m a believer in myself and so yeah, some words definitely came out at that point.”

It was one of several moments of celebration and relief that poured out of the 76ers in the second half. Another one occurred when Philadelphia responded to a 26-4 run from Brooklyn — the same kind of surge that doomed the 76ers in losses to the Orlando Magic a week ago and the Miami Heat on Monday. The latter prompted a postgame team meeting.

“I think the biggest thing is we came together,” said Maxey, who had 26 points and shot 11-for-17 from the field. “We talked about it. Like, listen, they’re going to go on runs. It’s basketball, it’s the NBA, they’re going to go on runs, but we can’t just lay down and let them do whatever they want to do. … We got to go out there and do something about it, and we got to go out there by getting stops, running out, scoring the ball, staying together as one team, and then once we were able to figure that out, I think we took a step in the right direction.

“But once we have that figured out, we know we will continue to get better.”

The 76ers will have to play at least one more game without two of their stars, continuing a theme to begin the season. The trio of Maxey, George and Embiid has had only 6:07 of court time together — all in Wednesday’s loss to Memphis.