Sixers injury updates ahead of 2nd preseason game against Nets

Sixers injury updates ahead of 2nd preseason game against Nets originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

With one preseason game in the books and three to go, the Sixers provided several injury updates Wednesday.

According to a team official, Dominick Barlow, Anfernee Simons and Adem Bona will all miss the Sixers’ upcoming road games Thursday against the Nets and Saturday against the Celtics.

Barlow has a back injury, Simons a hamstring issue. Sixers head coach Nick Nurse had indicated Monday that both injuries are minor, saying he expected Barlow and Simons to play “any time now.” Bona has progressed to on-court activity in his rehab from a left foot sprain. 

The Sixers lost another one of their centers to a serious injury in their preseason-opening win over the Knicks. Ariel Hukporti underwent surgery Tuesday on his torn right Achilles tendon.

“It’s super tough. … We were super excited by what we’d seen,” Nurse said. “He’s really active and athletic, really coachable and really engaged. We were really excited by what he could bring to the team. It’s always a bigger blow for him personally, but it’s certainly a blow for the team, especially this early on. 

“And he’s somebody that’s still young. The coaching staff was seeing a guy that had an (upward) trajectory … which he’ll get back to, but this kind of delays him for now.”

When healthy, Bona would presumably be the next traditional center in line behind Joel Embiid as things stand. Barlow and Walker both received the occasional center stint last season.

“Dean (Wade) would be another candidate,” Nurse said. “I don’t know if you’d call him a small five; he has pretty good size. I think LeBron (James) is another candidate. He’s played some small-ball five as well. That’s four or five guys. We’ll probably go with that crew unless something else emerges.”

As far as the Sixers’ projected starters, Jaylen Brown and VJ Edgecombe were the only two to play vs. the Knicks.

The Sixers plan to ramp up steadily toward opening night on Oct. 20. That will likely mean more players available Thursday night in Brooklyn. 

“We should be able to get the majority of the guys out there tomorrow,” Nurse said. “Again, we’ll see. It was pretty rough and physical today at practice, so we’ll see how everybody comes out of it. We should be able to get them out there tomorrow. 

“It’s usually first half type of stuff for the first (game). … And then hopefully, if you can in one of them, you can try to get them through the halftime routine, kind of starting the engines again as well, so that hopefully, the next time they’re out there, they’re able to do that.”