PHILADELPHIA (AP) — VJ Edgecombe will miss Wednesday's game against Utah with a low back bruise suffered by the 76ers’ star rookie a night earlier on a hard fall.
The Sixers said Edgecombe would be evaluated again ahead of Saturday's game at Atlanta.
Edgecombe was fouled by San Antonio's Carter Bryant on a 3-point attempt on Tuesday night and grimaced as he was helped up by his teammates. Edgecombe stayed in the game and went 2 of 3 from the free-throw line.
With the 76ers down 78-53 at halftime, Edgecombe did not return. He scored six points.
The No. 3 pick in the draft, Edgecombe, the MVP of the 2026 Rising Stars game, is one of three rookies in the NBA this season averaging at least 15.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game. He ranks first among rookies in steals (1.5), while ranking third in scoring (15.3), tied third in assists (3.9), and seventh in rebounds (5.5).
The 76ers also will play without Joel Embiid as he sits out the final game of a scheduled three straight games off with a strained right oblique.
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Philadelphia 76ers' VJ Edgecombe, center, dunks the ball as San Antonio Spurs' Victor Wembanyama, left, comes over to defend during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)
GALLE, Sri Lanka (AP) — A torpedo fired by a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka, whose navy said Wednesday it recovered 87 bodies and rescued 32 people.
The Iranian vessel sunk in the Indian Ocean was the Islamic Republic’s “prize ship,” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. It was one of the few instances of a submarine sinking a ship since World War II.
The sinking of the IRIS Dena illustrates a U.S.-Israeli military operation against Iran that is stretching beyond its borders. U.S. President Donald Trump has said one of the key objectives of the war is to wipe out Iran's navy.
“An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,” Hegseth said at a Pentagon news briefing. “Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo.”
After Sri Lanka's navy received a distress signal from the IRIS Dena, which had 180 people on board, it sent ships and planes on a rescue mission, the country's foreign minister, Vijitha Herath, told Parliament.
But by the time Sri Lanka's navy reached the location, there was no sign of the ship, “only some oil patches and life rafts," navy spokesman Commander Buddhika Sampath said. "We found people floating on the water.”
A video released by the U.S. Department of Defense on X showed the moment of the torpedo attack. The Iranian ship appears to be hit by an underwater explosion that causes it to break apart, as a large plume of water rises up in the air.
The 32 people rescued were admitted to a hospital in Galle, a town on Sri Lanka's southern coast, Sampath said. The bodies recovered were also being brought to land, he said.
At the National Hospital in Galle, Iranian sailors' bodies were arriving in trucks and being stored in a makeshift mortuary. The hospital was guarded by Sri Lankan police and naval personnel, as workers unloaded bodies away from view.
Dr. Anil Jasinghe, a top health ministry official, said one of those rescued is in critical condition, seven are receiving emergency treatment and others are being treated for minor injuries.
The IRIS Dena — one of Iran’s newest warships — patrolled in deep water, and was armed with heavy guns, surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship missiles and torpedoes. It carried one helicopter.
The ship had been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in February 2023, along with eight executives of an Iranian drone manufacturer that supplied weapons to Russia for use against civilian targets in Ukraine.
At least 17 Iranian naval vessels have been sunk during the ongoing war, said U.S. Adm. Brad Cooper, who leads the American military’s Central Command.
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Associated Press journalists Adam Schreck in Bangkok, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Ben Finley and Konstantin Toropin in Washington, contributed to this report.
Healthcare workers unload the bodies of Iranian sailors from a vehicle who died when their IRIS Dena warship sank outside Sri Lanka's territorial waters, in Galle, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)
Healthcare workers unload the bodies of Iranian sailors from a vehicle who died when their IRIS Dena warship sank outside Sri Lanka's territorial waters, in Galle, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)
Healthcare workers unload the bodies of Iranian sailors from a vehicle who died when their IRIS Dena warship sank outside Sri Lanka's territorial waters, in Galle, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)
Healthcare workers unload the bodies of Iranian sailors from a vehicle who died when their IRIS Dena warship sank outside Sri Lanka's territorial waters, in Galle, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)
Healthcare workers unload the bodies of Iranian sailors from a vehicle who died when their IRIS Dena warship sank outside Sri Lanka's territorial waters, in Galle, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)
Iranian warship IRIS Dena is seen in the Bay of Bengal during International Fleet Review held at Visakhapatnam, India, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo)
