76ers star Paul George suffers from hyperextension of his left knee

Philadelphia 76ers star Paul George suffered a hyperextended left knee in the second quarter of Monday's preseason win at Atlanta and did not return.

“Hopefully everything will be okay, so he’ll be back with us right away,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse told reporters after the game.

George, playing in his second preseason game with the 76ers after signing a four-year maximum contract as a free agent this offseason, defended Hawks forward Jalen Johnson with just over eight minutes left in the second quarter as he dropped out. The leg was planted awkwardly and bent at a strange angle.

He quickly left the game and did not return, so the team ruled George out of the second half for the remainder of the evening.

“I felt like it was overstretched and immediately it was like, all right, I need to be taken out and (looked at), but if you ask me, I'm not too worried about it,” George told the Philadelphia Inquirer .

Philadelphia had already ruled out Joel Embiid for the remainder of the preseason on Sunday as the star center continues to increase his conditioning and activity to be ready for next week's regular-season opener at home against the Milwaukee Bucks on Oct. 23. Embiid suffered a left knee injury last season that limited him to 39 games.

The 76ers were already planning to be careful with the health of George and Embiid this season. President of basketball operations Daryl Morey told ESPN that both stars “probably won't play back-to-back often, if at all.”

And for all the attention on Embiid's injury history — he has missed 204 games over the past eight seasons and was sidelined his first two years in the NBA with foot injuries — the 74 games George played in last season are in his final year with the Clippers were his most since 2019 and came after he played no more than 56 games in each of his previous four seasons in Los Angeles.