Jahlil Okafor did not practice Tuesday and will not play Wednesday against the Rockets because of a right shin contusion and soreness in his right knee.
“His shin is coming along, it still has soreness,” Sixers coach Brett Brown said after practice. “There is some soreness in his knee. We’ve been treating his shin. During that whole procedure, we’re trying to figure out some swelling in his knee, some soreness in his knee. We are going to keep him out of the Houston game for that reason.”
Okafor suffered the shin injury Feb. 28 against the Magic. He has sat out the last four games and has not practiced since then.
The Sixers have been aware of the soreness in Okafor's knee, though it was not the cause for him being sidelined in those previous matchups.
“We’ve known about the knee,” Brown said. “But you could talk about an elbow or finger, it’s just part of all of our guys. The shin is the reason that we decided not to play him. It’s now something that we’re learning more about a knee and we’ll be able to provide more later.”
Brown does not believe the shin and knee situations are tied together.
“We believe the knee is unrelated to his shin,” he said. “We’ve learned more about it as we’ve treated some inflammation in his shin. It’s just felt funny, on a treadmill yesterday trying to get him going and something felt just not perfect. Not perfect is all it takes for us, given we’re where at and the importance of Jahlil. So we’ll learn more in the next short period of time and share that with everybody.”
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Brown did not look ahead long-term about the injuries, as the team is still gathering information on Okafor. The rookie big man is averaging a team-high 17.5 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 30.0 minutes this season.
“It’s way too premature to speculate any direction,” Brown said. “I do feel confident that what has been told to me will be true for the media, that we will know more soon. I can’t quantify what soon means, and then we will share it.”
After missing the last two games, Nerlens Noel (knee), Nik Stauskas and Kendall Marshall (upper respiratory infections) practiced Tuesday and will play Wednesday.
"I got a good run in," Noel said. "I felt pretty good, so we're looking to give it a go tomorrow."
Brown plans for Noel to return to the starting lineup at center, with Jerami Grant filling Okafor’s spot at power forward. Given the recent contributions of Carl Landry, Elton Brand and Richaun Holmes, Brown isn't overly concerned about plugging in players in the frontcourt.
“You feel like that position probably is not one where you just are shorthanded,” Brown said. “We’ll learn more about what the Jahlil news represents for all of us, as I say, soon.”
The Sixers will host the Rockets at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at the Wells Fargo Center.