76ers’ Doc Rivers ‘not sure’ when Joel Embiid (knee) will return

NEW YORK — Philadelphia 76ers coach Doc Rivers said his message to both injured superstar Joel Embiid and the rest of his team ahead of Game 4 of their first-round series with the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center was the same: dealing with Embiid’s latest postseason injury is just another thing to manage in what the 76ers hope will be a long and successful playoff run.

“Obviously, clearly that’s on your mind,” Rivers said of Embiid’s injury history after he suffered a right knee sprain in Philadelphia’s Game 3 win Thursday night. “But as I said, this is another obstacle in the story that we’re going to write this year, and you’re going to be OK. It may take a minute, but this is just part of it.

“To me, I’m sure … he’s human, and goodness, this happens again. Let’s win, let’s get him back on the floor and let’s keep on our own journey.”

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne reported Friday that Embiid’s right knee sprain would rule him out for Game 4, though there was optimism Embiid could return as soon as early next week.

When asked if he believed Embiid could return in this series, assuming Brooklyn extends it to at least Game 5 with a win Saturday, Rivers said, “I don’t know. I can’t answer that, but I’m not sure.”

Embiid suffered the injury early in the third quarter, when he landed awkwardly after trying to contest a drive by Nets forward Cam Johnson. Embiid remained in the game and made a game-saving block on a drive by Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie in the closing seconds to preserve the win — one that put Brooklyn ahead 3-0 in this best-of-seven series — before Rivers said swelling and pain behind the knee prompted an MRI.

“Just the tests after the game in the locker room,” Rivers said when asked what led to Embiid getting his knee looked at. “You think about it, down the stretch he made two amazing plays. The blocked shot was huge, but from my understanding they checked his knee out right after the game because he was complaining about some soreness behind the knee, which is always a scary thing to hear about with players. There was swelling already, which is way too early, so we did the MRI.

“As a coach, I hate that word. I hate those three letters, because it never comes out well. It just feels like that, whenever they tell a coach you’re going to get an MRI, it doesn’t turn out well most of the time, and this time it did not.”

Embiid, a finalist for the Most Valuable Player Award for a third straight season, led the NBA in scoring for a second straight year, averaging 33.1 points. Still, this isn’t the first time the 76ers have had to play without him.

Philadelphia went 11-5 in 16 games this season without Embiid, who has been injured during the 76ers’ previous playoff runs, including a thumb injury and facial fracture in last year’s postseason.

Rivers joked that he’d be happy to see Brooklyn continue to relentlessly trap Philadelphia’s centers now that Embiid is out, before saying he was confident Nets coach Jacque Vaughn would do no such thing.

He then added that he’s confident in his team’s ability to close this series, though he declined to name who would start in Embiid’s place.

“They are going to change [what they do],” Rivers said. “We don’t need to discuss that. But having said that, I don’t. When Joel is off the floor in those 10-12 minutes when he’s off the floor, we go back to playing the way we play and we’ve had some pretty good runs there. We’ve got a collection of bigs, we’ve got a lot of guys that can play basketball on our team, and we’ve got to find the right group that can win games for us.”