Sixers injury update: Glenn Robinson III will miss beginning of Celtics series with oblique muscle strain
After missing the Sixers’ last two seeding games with a left hip pointer injury, Glenn Robinson III underwent further evaluation that also revealed an oblique muscle strain, according to a team spokesperson. He’ll be re-evaluated in 7-10 days.
Robinson being sidelined will impact the Sixers’ rotation and limit Brett Brown’s options for at least the beginning of the team’s first-round playoff series against the Celtics. The series begins Monday night (see series schedule).
The 26-year-old wing has a 3-and-D skill set that Brown called “clean,” and it seemed his perimeter defense could have value in stints against Boston wings like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Without him, it appears likely that Alec Burks, Matisse Thybulle, Furkan Korkmaz and Mike Scott will be the bench players in the Sixers’ playoff rotation.
Brown has been consistent in saying he’d like to have a nine-man rotation for the postseason. He noted on Friday that Thybulle in particular is “going to assume a massive role.”
Burks was excellent in the seeding games, averaging 14.6 points and 2.9 assists and thriving as a shot-creating backup point guard.
Robinson, who the Sixers acquired along with Burks in a February trade with the Warriors, first sustained the left hip pointer injury in the Sixers’ second scrimmage at Disney World. Though he returned to play in two seeding games, he admitted after the Sixers’ loss to the Suns on Tuesday that the injury was still bothering him at times.
“It’s a unique injury, I’ll just say that,” he said. “Small things – talking, laughing – little things. I’m trying to work my way through it and every day it’s getting better. Just trying to do everything I can with the training staff.
“I’ve been trying to get my legs under me these last two games and I’m going to do the same things the next couple games we’ve got. I’m not too concerned about it and hopefully we can just get to 100 percent. It’s a slight – I feel it a little bit still.”
No other Sixers are on the injury report. Joel Embiid grabbed at his right hand on several occasions in Friday’s game after having it whacked by Marc Gasol in Wednesday’s loss to the Raptors, but Brown said pregame he wasn’t concerned Embiid’s hand would restrict him or limit his effectiveness vs. the Celtics.
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