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Payne set to miss rest of Sixers' regular season with hamstring injury
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- Payne set to miss rest of Sixers' regular season with hamstring injury
Payne set to miss rest of Sixers' regular season with hamstring injury originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Barring an unexpected return far ahead of schedule, Cameron Payne won't play again for the Sixers this regular season.
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A team official said Sunday that an MRI confirmed Payne suffered a strained right hamstring during the Sixers' loss Saturday night to the Pistons. He'll be re-evaluated in approximately two weeks, the official said.
The Sixers' final regular-season game will be next Sunday vs. the Bucks. With the Raptors' loss Sunday to the Celtics, the Sixers are again sixth in the Eastern Conference standings at 43-35. The seventh through 10th seeds will participate in the play-in tournament , which is set to start April 14. Round 1 of the playoffs will begin April 18.
Payne had recently been on the edge of the Sixers' rotation and didn't play in two of the team's last four games. His absence would make an injury to one of the Sixers' healthy rotation guards — Tyrese Maxey , VJ Edgecombe and Quentin Grimes — a bit more damaging. The next guard on the depth chart would be Kyle Lowry , who turned 40 years old last month and has only appeared in 13 games during his 20th NBA season.
Since signing with the Sixers in February and returning to the NBA from Serbia, Payne has played 22 times. There's no question his best game has been a career-high 32-point performance on 9-for-10 shooting in a win over the Grizzlies.
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The 31-year-old lefty has averaged 7.4 points, 2.6 assists, 2.0 rebounds and 1.1 steals in his second stint as a Sixer. He's shot 37.6 percent from the floor, 33 percent from three-point range and 86.4 percent at the foul line.
Johni Broome (right knee surgery recovery) was the one other Sixer listed as out for the team's Monday night meeting with the Spurs. Joel Embiid was not listed on the Sixers' injury report after sitting out the second leg of their back-to-back vs. Detroit .
