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Tim BontempsESPN
The NBA fined the Philadelphia 76ers $25,000 Monday afternoon for violating the league’s injury reporting rules.
After Ben Simmons wasn’t on the injury report Friday, when Philadelphia had half its team in the NBA’s health and safety protocols after Seth Curry tested positive for COVID-19 the day before, the Sixers listed him as out for Saturday afternoon’s game against the Denver Nuggets with swelling in his left knee.
Simmons remains out of the lineup for Monday night’s game against the Atlanta Hawks with the same injury.
The league’s injury reporting rules prohibit players having late, dramatic shifts in availability — for example, going from not listed to out, as Simmons did, or vice versa.
Before Saturday’s game, Sixers coach Doc Rivers said the team knew after Thursday’s loss in Brooklyn to the Nets that Simmons wouldn’t be available.
“Ben, in the Brooklyn game, had some knee stiffness, and so we almost probably knew after the game that he wouldn’t play tonight,” Rivers said.
Joel Embiid, who also missed Saturday’s game, with back stiffness in his case, is available to play Monday night in Atlanta. With Embiid, Philadelphia has nine available players — one more than the required eight to be able to play. One of those nine, however, is forward Mike Scott, who didn’t play Saturday due to an ongoing knee issue that had previously kept him out of the lineup.
It was unclear Monday whether Scott would be available to play against the Hawks; he remains listed on the injury report as “available” with a left knee contusion.
Eight Sixers remain out: five (Curry, Tobias Harris, Matisse Thybulle, Shake Milton and Vincent Poirier) because of the protocols; Simmons because of his knee; Terrance Ferguson for personal reasons; and Furkan Korkmaz, who is out with an adductor strain.