National Basketball Association

76ers' Embiid (hand) plans to play vs. Rockets (Oct 30, 2017)

Published Oct. 30, 2017 4:30 a.m. ET

Joel Embiid spent Sunday insisting his bruised right hand was fine and enjoying Game 5 of the World Series in Houston, wearing a personalized Los Angeles Dodgers jersey.

Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers home to hand the Houston Rockets a loss on Monday at the Toyota Center.

The 7-foot center bruised his hand Saturday during the 76ers' 112-110 win at Dallas. He believes the injury occurred sometime during the first half. Postgame X-rays were negative.

Despite the injury, Embiid totaled 23 points and nine rebounds in a season-high 29 minutes. Embiid's performance gave the 76ers a second win in three games after they fell to 0-3 with a 128-94 loss at Toronto on Oct. 21.

The 76ers enjoyed a light practice on Sunday in Houston, where Embiid answered inquiries about his hand by saying:

"Nah I'll play. I don't care what they say. I'm playing. I'm excited about tomorrow. Hopefully, my hand feels better. But I'm sure I will be fine."

Not only will Embiid try to produce another effective showing against the Rockets, but he is hoping to get a win this time. He scored 21 points in 24:58 Wednesday, but Eric Gordon's corner 3-pointer at the buzzer gave the Rockets a 105-104 win over Philadelphia.

The 76ers (2-4) are also looking to end an eight-game losing streak in the series. It is their second-longest skid against the Rockets, three shy of the record set from 1992 to 1997.

Philadelphia also is winless in its last six trips to Houston and 2-10 in the past 12 meetings.

The Sixers will be looking to end a lengthy losing streak to an opponent for the second straight game.

On Saturday, Philadelphia withstood a late charge from the Mavericks to snap an 11-game losing streak in the series. Besides Embiid's big night, Ben Simmons contributed 23 points, eight assists and seven rebounds.

"It was good," Simmons said. "We made a lot of mistakes in the previous game, but we made up for them. We are getting better each game, so as long as we are getting better ..."

Simmons is averaging 17.5 points, 7.5 assists and 9.5 rebounds. He recorded his first career triple-double on Oct. 23 in Detroit and made a run at another against the Rockets on Wednesday with 14 points, nine assists and seven rebounds.

While Embiid said he would play, it was unknown if J.J. Redick would suit up. The 76ers shooting guard sat out Saturday due to lower back tightness, and the team did not update his status Sunday.

The injury is not believed to be serious for Redick, who scored 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting Wednesday against Houston.

If Redick does not play, forward Dario Saric would start. He was scoreless Wednesday but finished with a season-high 12 points at Dallas.

The Rockets (5-2) will be looking to rebound from their worst showing of the season Saturday in a 103-89 loss at Memphis. Houston shot 37.7 percent overall and missed nine of its first 10 shots in the fourth quarter while falling behind by 19 points.

"I thought we ran out of steam," Houston coach Mike D'Antoni said. "We've got a lot of guys playing a lot of minutes. We lost our legs."

The Rockets played Saturday without Eric Gordon (stomach virus), and the guard is considered questionable for Monday.

If he does play, the Rockets hope he can continue his recent 3-point shooting prowess. Gordon missed 20 of his first 25 3-point attempts but is 16 of 47 from behind the arc in his last three games.

Without Gordon to help with some of the offense, James Harden experienced his worst night of the season Saturday. Harden scored 20 points but shot 6 of 19, including 2 of 9 on 3-point attempts.

"We just didn't have any pop today," Harden said. "They came out with aggressiveness and they made shots. They played well."

Harden had plenty of "pop" in Philadelphia last week. He scored 27 points on 10-of-20 shooting in 39 minutes.

Since joining the Rockets, Harden is averaging 34.8 points in 10 games against the Sixers. He scored 50 points on the Sixers two years ago in Houston and finished with 33 in last season's home meeting against Philadelphia before getting 51 on Jan. 27 in Philadelphia.