76ers’ De’Anthony Melton, Robert Covington get worrisome injury updates ahead of NBA playoffs

PHILADELPHIA — After missing the Philadelphia 76ers’ final regular-season game, Joel Embiid should be ready to go on Wednesday when the Sixers host the Miami Heat in a play-in game. However, De’Anthony Melton and Robert Covington are unlikely to be available.

After the 76ers concluded their regular season with a win over the Brooklyn Nets, Nick Nurse said that Embiid was held out as a precautionary measure and said he should be ready to go against Miami. He also provided the latest injury updates on Melton and Covington, who have respectively dealt with brutal back and knee injuries over the last several months.

Melton is now dealing with the second reaggravation of a back injury that has forced him to miss all but five games since the New Year. He made his second return earlier this week, playing 15 minutes and looking good, but now could be sidelined again. Nurse said that he has “always had concern” with the problems Melton’s back has given him.

“It’s kind of the second time we’ve gone through holding him out, trying to treat him, getting him to a place where he thinks he can play, played a couple of games, then he went out again for a long stretch, we bring him back, he plays one game and he’s out again. I just think it’s very difficult,” Nurse said. “I think we’re in the same situation; they’re gonna continue to treat him, try to get him better. We’re hoping for a long run here, so there’s still always time as this goes to get him back and have him be a factor in this thing. But it is concerning.”

Nurse didn’t definitively say either way whether Melton could play on Wednesday but said that it would take “probably a bit of a journey” for him to alleviate this new issue and be ready to play after playing just 21 total minutes of basketball over two games since the start of March.

Covington is almost certainly not going to be available for the playoffs. While he has been able to get some work in on the court, it’s not enough to be available for games.

“Nope, I don’t think so,” Nurse said when asked if it’s possible for Covington to return soon. “This hasn’t made enough progress. We did get him on the court a couple of times last week and just hasn’t made enough progress to be able to move well enough without pain.”

The 76ers do have a good amount of depth on the wings with Nico Batum, Buddy Hield and Ricky Council IV coming off the bench. But not having Melton and Covington is a huge bummer.