Danuel House on Pace to Return for 76ers vs. Hawks

76ers sharpshooter Danuel House Jr. is working his way back.

Joel Embiid wasn’t the only Philadelphia 76ers player to battle the flu recently. Last Friday, when the Sixers were gearing up to take on the New York Knicks, the veteran reserve Danuel House Jr. was added to the injury report due to a non-COVID illness.

Similar to Embiid, House was questionable leading up to the Knicks matchup. Eventually, both players were ruled out. When the Sixers met for practice last Sunday, Embiid was an active participant. House, on the other hand, wasn’t around.

Ahead of Monday’s game against the Phoenix Suns, House was ruled out early. Meanwhile, Embiid was questionable before getting upgraded to available. The big man ended up playing in over 35 minutes, helping lead the Sixers to victory against Phoenix.

Two days later, the Sixers returned to the practice court before traveling to Atlanta. This time around, House was back with the team as a full participant in practice.

“House was good — he was good,” said Sixers coach Doc Rivers. “Just getting him back is really good. He’s getting his wind. As you can see, he’s doing extra running, extra work, so we’ll see.”

Following Philadelphia’s Wednesday morning practice, House was spotted putting in some extra time on the court with members of the Sixers’ player development staff. As the veteran is working on getting his wind back ahead of Thursday’s game, he felt he needed to put in overtime to make up for lost time on the floor.

“[I’m] putting in extra work,” said House. “I just stayed later to get some extra shots up. It’s one step at a time. It’s a day-by-day process. I just gotta work through it.”

For the first time in two games, House isn’t on the Sixers’ injury report. Therefore, he’s cleared for action ahead of the Thursday night matchup against the Atlanta Hawks. It’s unclear whether House will have limited minutes off the bench as he works his way back, but the extra depth for the shorthanded Sixers will be a nice addition to the bench against the Hawks on Thursday. 

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