{"id":697552,"date":"2026-04-04T10:25:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T10:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/697552\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T10:25:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T10:25:16","slug":"joel-embiid-explains-frustration-over-missing-game-against-wizards-due-to-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/697552\/","title":{"rendered":"Joel Embiid Explains Frustration Over Missing Game Against Wizards Due to Illness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joel Embiid<\/a> returned to the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a>‘ lineup on Friday after missing one game due to illness. Embiid was ruled out when the 76ers visited Capital One Arena and faced the Washington Wizards<\/a>. Without the great center, the club defeated the Wizards 153-131.<\/p>\n

Embiid played three straight games before he was ruled out on Wednesday. Before that, he dealt with a right oblique strain and missed 13 straight games. Despite the injuries that the 2023 MVP has had this season, he’s done his best to be available for the team.<\/p>\n

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The Cameroonian big man has appeared in 37 games<\/a>, which isn’t a lot. However, it’s an improvement over his 19-game appearance<\/a> last season.<\/p>\n

Joel Embiid Points to Daryl Morey Regarding His Absence\"Philadelphia<\/p>\n

Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid (21) \u00a9 Bill Streicher-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

(\u00a9 Bill Streicher-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

On Friday, he played 34 and a half minutes against the Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> to help the 76ers with a 115-103 win<\/a>. Embiid had a productive game with 19 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists and three blocks.<\/p>\n

After the game, he was asked about his one-game absence, and he pointed to the team’s president of basketball operations, Daryl Morey.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI was pissed off, I wanted to play basketball,\u201d Embiid said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t allowed to play basketball. So, I think this is more of a question [for] Daryl Morey and whoever makes the decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to him, he already felt sick before the team played against the Miami Heat<\/a> on Monday. Embiid said that he knew it was an important game and still played 34 minutes. He finished with 26 points and seven rebounds, as the 76ers suffered a 119-109 loss.<\/p>\n

Heading to Washington, the seven-time All-Star said that he felt “definitely much better” than when they faced the Heat.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI woke up, didn’t sleep until probably, like, 5 in the morning or 6,\u201d Embiid added. \u201cSo, with that, I couldn’t make it to shootaround. Then after that, I found out online that I wasn’t playing that night. So that kind of caught me off guard, and yeah, that pissed me off, but then again, I guess they make the decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 76ers are scheduled to face the Detroit Pistons<\/a> on Saturday, and Embiid is hoping to play in his first back-to-back of the season. He told the media<\/a> that “there’s a chance” he could be on the floor tomorrow night. However, he pointed out that the team will have the final say on his status against the Pistons.<\/p>\n

Embiid revealed that his right oblique is still bothering him and that it got hit against Minnesota. However, he tries his best not to think about his injury too much.<\/p>\n

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Related: 76ers Announce Joel Embiid Injury Update for Bulls Game<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Apr 4, 2026, where it first appeared in the NBA<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joel Embiid returned to the Philadelphia 76ers‘ lineup on Friday after missing one game due to illness. Embiid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3780],"tags":[7,1332,188,936,189,152,6,207,38345,682,468,3892,683],"class_list":{"0":"post-697552","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-wizards","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-daryl-morey","10":"tag-detroit-pistons","11":"tag-joel-embiid","12":"tag-miami-heat","13":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","16":"tag-straight-games","17":"tag-washington","18":"tag-washington-wizards","19":"tag-washingtonwizards","20":"tag-wizards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116345959477293341","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}