76ers vs. Hawks: Joel Embiid Has Successful Return From Injury

Returning to the court after a four-game absence, Joel Embiid did what he could to help the 76ers continue to find success.

Despite missing three key starters in the last four games, the Philadelphia 76ers have found plenty of success last week. 

With James Harden and Tyrese Maxey out of the mix for multiple weeks due to lower-body injuries, Joel Embiid was taking over and running things for a bit. Then an injury affected the All-Star center and took him off the court for four-straight games.

With wins over the Brooklyn Nets, and the Orlando Magic on two occasions, the Sixers found success against everybody but the Charlotte Hornets last week. After a blowout win in Orlando on Sunday, the Sixers made a stop home to take on the Atlanta Hawks on Monday night.

Embiid was upgraded to questionable ahead of the matchup. After going through his pregame warmups, the big man felt good enough to make his return to the floor. In the first eight minutes of action, Embiid was understandably rusty as he went 0-3 from the field, scoring four points off free throws.

Fortunately for the Sixers, their thriving veteran forward Tobias Harris remained efficient as he went 4-6 from the field, scoring nine points in eight minutes. Through the first quarter of action, the Sixers looked like a team coming off of a road game the previous night that had a rusty key player in the mix.

In the second quarter, Embiid found his rhythm after shaking the rust. In a little under ten minutes of action, the big man knocked down five of his eight shots for a total of ten points, As the Sixers outscored the Hawks 28-21 in the second quarter, they knocked a once 16-point lead down to four before halftime.

“He’s pretty good,” said Sixers head coach Doc Rivers regarding Joel Embiid. “I thought as the game went on, he warmed up to that in trying to find the right mix.”

Embiid didn’t have to force anything in the second half of Monday’s game. Since his teammates have been thriving over the last week, the big man found a healthy mix of distributing and scoring when he needed to. Then on defense, Embiid was dominant in key situations.

“I came in with a mindset to get my teammates involved because everybody's been having it going and playing so well, so I just wanted to keep that going,” Embiid said. “We've always had a system. I think lately, they've been moving the ball, they've been making shots, and then we've been playing good defense. So, I just wanted to come in and feed in to try and make sure that everybody keeps doing what they've been doing because they've been doing a great job. Then in some ways, whenever I was needed, that's when I needed to turn it up.”

Embiid and the Sixers evened the score before the third quarter. Then when the Sixers needed a closer, the big man stepped up. In his final six minutes on the floor, Embiid hit on all but three of his shots from the field, then was nearly perfect from the free throw line, draining seven of his eight attempts. He scored a fourth-quarter high of 11 points as the Sixers outscored the Hawks 23-20 in the final 12 minutes.

The big man finished the night with 30 points in 35 minutes as the Sixers defeated Atlanta with a final score of 104-101. 

With another victory over the Hawks, the Sixers picked up their fourth win in five outings. Joel Embiid’s return to action resulted in the Sixers advancing to 12-9 on the year. Now, they’ll hit the road to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers Wednesday night. 

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.