Brand Out A Month

Elton Brand received an MRI after last night's game that revealed a fracture of the humeral head (bone) and a tear of the labrum, the Sixers announced in a press release. Sixers team doc Jack McPhilemy said he doesn't think the injury requires surgery at this time.

The Sixers said Brand will begin rehab immediately and is expected to be out a month. He will not travel with the team this afternoon to Washington, where the Sixers play the Wizards tomorrow night.

In the third quarter of last night's win over the Milwaukee Bucks, Brand left the game clutching his right shoulder. The news coming from the Sixers last night was a "Dislocated Right Shoulder."

Brand was not made available to the media at today's practice at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. Sixers officials said the first opportunity to speak with Brand will come before Saturday's home game against the Indiana Pacers.

The Sixers watched film for about 30 minutes today and then got on the court to shoot around before taking an afternoon train to Washington.

The injury to Brand tosses another wrench into what has been a whirlwind first two months of the season. Of course, on Saturday, President and General Manager Ed Stefanski fired coach Maurice Cheek after the Sixers started 9-14. New coach, Tony DiLeo, has said he was working on tweaking the offensive and defensive sets to better improve the Sixers efficiency. He said before last night's game that he believed this team had the pieces to win.

The injury to Brand comes at an odd time as we've been speaking recently about whether Brand's addition had slowed what was last year an uptempo squad. When Brand left the game last night, the Sixers trailed by seven points. They won by five points. But the consensus among the Sixers players is that Brand is an essential piece for long-term success. The Sixers might seem more effective in the short-term reverting to their run-and-gun style, but they need a reliable half-court player to win the tough games.

--Kate