Joel Embiid says his foot is ‘painful’ and he was on a minutes restriction, then plays 33 minutes with 26 points as the 76ers move to 8-1

Joel Embiid is playing through pain, and he is not hiding it. After the Philadelphia 76ers beat Chicago on Monday, the center said his right foot is “painful,” that he was on a minutes restriction, and that when it “flares up pretty bad, got to take a step back.” Two nights later he played 33 minutes in a win at Detroit and finished with 26 points and 15 rebounds. The 76ers are 8-1, and the way they are handling his plantar fasciitis is now one of the most important storylines of their season.

What Embiid said on Monday

Embiid was listed as questionable for the Bulls game with right foot plantar fasciitis, played, and sat out the entire fourth quarter of a 126-107 win. He logged about 25 minutes, and the restriction ended after three quarters. Asked about it afterward, he did not play it down.

“It’s been going on like that for the last few,” Embiid said. “So yeah, it’s painful. Just got to manage it and when it flares up pretty bad, got to take a step back. But yeah, we’ve been able to manage it, but it has its ups and downs. You feel it on the court, so it certainly doesn’t help.” He finished that game with 15 points, eight rebounds and three assists.

Coach Nick Nurse was careful in his own description. The team will be “managing that and trying to be smart with it,” Nurse said.

Wednesday in Detroit

The 76ers did not list Embiid on their injury report for the Pistons game, and he played. In the second quarter he drew a technical foul in a confrontation with Detroit’s Tolu Smith. Late in the third he went to the bench with about 24 minutes played, and in the fourth he took his shoes off, which looked like the end of his night, with Jabari Walker ready to check in.

Then Detroit cut the lead to 12 and Nurse called a timeout. Walker went back to the bench and Embiid checked back in, finishing with 33 minutes. He shot 8 of 18 and made all 10 of his free throws, and Adem Bona, his usual backup, had his best stint of the season, scoring eight points in 8:51 while Embiid rested in the first half. Our recap of the game has the full box score.

Embiid ↪️ Edgecombe pic.twitter.com/aY6vnJ1isu

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) November 5, 2026

The context around the foot

This is not the first time the 76ers have had to build a plan around Embiid’s availability. He sat out Saturday’s game against Charlotte, the back end of a back-to-back, which is the team’s standard protocol, and the one loss Philadelphia has taken this season came at Detroit in the game Embiid missed. That is why Wednesday, with a full night from Embiid, mattered so much for a team trying to keep its lead in the East.

His production this season has also been unusual. Through the first six games he averaged 18.5 points while shooting 40.7 percent from the field and 13 percent from three, which would be a career low in scoring, while his rebounding was the highest in three seasons. He has also said he is adjusting to a role in which he does not have the ball in his hands on most possessions, which is a change from past years.

What to watch next

Plantar fasciitis tends to linger, and Embiid’s own description, that it has its ups and downs, suggests the 76ers will keep making game-to-game decisions. Bona is dealing with a neck issue after taking a hit in Detroit, and Nurse said it looked like he would be OK but there was nothing for sure. Barlow, out with a lower-back stress reaction, is still 10 to 12 days from being cleared to return to the court, in Nurse’s update before the game.

Philadelphia plays at Cleveland on Friday night, 7:30 p.m. ET, which is 2:30 a.m. Saturday in Cairo. The 76ers have won eight of nine with staggered lineups that keep Embiid, LeBron James and VJ Edgecombe on the floor in different combinations, but whether that holds depends on a foot.