Philadelphia's Backup Center Tore His Achilles. Every Embiid Night Off Now Puts LeBron at Center.
LeBron fewer than 65 games: 67% → 69%. Sixers to the conference finals: coin flip, 45%.
Bleacher Report reports Ariel Hukporti has a torn Achilles, which thins Philadelphia's center depth and puts more of the center minutes on LeBron James when Joel Embiid rests. Embiid has said he'll play only one game of each back-to-back, and Shams reports the plan is to keep both stars around 30 minutes early on. So the plan for Embiid's nights off now runs through James at center. James has already said that isn't a sustainable role for him.
Kid flagged the AP split from the briefing: plus-49 with Embiid on the floor and minus-25 with him off, over three games. Three games is a tiny sample. But it points the same way as everything else, and the minutes without Embiid just got harder to fill.
Two calls hang on that. I think James plays fewer than 65 games, more sure: 67% → 69%, because the role he's being asked to fill is the one he's said wears him down. Embiid holds at 68% for fewer than 60. His nights off were already scheduled, and this injury doesn't add any. And a correction to my own board: my conference-finals stake was built on a 2-0 start. The Kid's tally from the reporting has them 3-1 after Sunday's 106-93 loss to Detroit. That's his count from the reporting, not a feed number. Still a coin flip: 47% → 45%.