Embiid returns, says knee issues ‘depressing’

CHICAGO — After 76ers center Joel Embiid finished with 31 points and 12 rebounds in Philadelphia’s 108-100 win against the Bulls on Sunday, he admitted it’s been a difficult process for him mentally to go through trying to get his left knee to a place where he can play.

“Depressing,” Embiid told ESPN, when asked what the last couple of months have been like for him, after Sunday’s game. “Just trying to figure it out. There’s no injury. Just between the swelling … we’ve got to get it figured out. That’s it.

“I’ve been saying it for the last few months. It’s been extremely depressing. It’s something that hasn’t been figured out, and it’s been extremely annoying, because I would love to play every single game.”

That has, unfortunately for both Embiid and Philadelphia, not been the case this season. Embiid missed the opening nine games of the season both because of his knee and a league suspension before returning to play in four games — including scoring 35 points in Memphis on Nov. 20 — before again being shut down and missing the past two-and-a-half weeks of action due to both his knee swelling up on him and personal reasons.

That time away from the court ended Sunday, however, when Embiid — after being upgraded to questionable Saturday — went through his normal pregame workout a little less than an hour before tip and was then inserted back into the starting lineup alongside fellow All-Stars Tyrese Maxey and Paul George.

Before Sunday’s game here, the three of them had only shared the court for six minutes — all in that loss in Memphis, when George hyperextended his left knee for a second time in about a month and Embiid would later have his knee struggle to respond the way he hoped it would.

But, against Chicago, there were glimpses of what they can do. The trio played 26 minutes together Sunday, with the 76ers outscoring the Bulls by 14 points across those minutes.

As a result, Embiid still has faith that despite the rough start to the season for the 76ers, who have now rattled off wins in four of their last five games after opening the season 3-14, there’s still time for them to do the things they set out to do before the season began.

“It starts with health,” Embiid told ESPN. It felt good to have the guys on the floor. I believe if we’re healthy, and we’re on the floor, we have a chance against anybody, and I like what we have.

“I think the whole thing is about health … that’s what it comes down to. I wish I could have been playing from the beginning. I would love to play every single game, every single minute, but sometimes your body just says ‘No,’ and you can’t do nothing about it. All you can do is just keep working to fix it and get better.”

A similar thing could be said for how this game played out. The 76ers were down 10 after the first quarter, and were lucky it wasn’t twice that much. Embiid missed all six of his shots in the quarter, and the Bulls, who were led by 30 points from Zach LaVine, looked like they might run Philadelphia right off the court.

“I said it on the bench a couple times,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said. “I was like, ‘Whoa, we could be down … we’re playing so bad, right? Really bad. We were down five with a couple minutes ago. I was like, ‘How are we down five?'”

They wound up not being down for long once the second quarter started, because Embiid — after missing his first seven shots of the game — would then go on to make 8 of his next 10, outscoring the Bulls by himself (19-17) in the second as Philadelphia outscored Chicago 39-17 to stake the 76ers to a lead they would never relinquish.

Many of those Embiid shots came off passes from Maxey, who registered his first career triple-double with 25 points, 11 rebounds and 14 assists — with 10 of those assists, per ESPN Research, coming off feeds to Embiid.

“It was great,” Maxey said of having Embiid on the court again. “I mean, that’s just who he is. I think today. It’s easy, man. It’s easier, man. There’s a lot more space out there. I felt like today, even when he’s out there and I’m not out there, it’s harder to maybe trap or whatever. They can’t trap ball screens, you know what I mean? Either or if they don’t drive, then I can score or shoot three or if they drop too much and help too much for me, I’m pocket passing to him and he’s getting a layup or a [midrange jumper] … it makes the game easier.”

After beating the Bulls on Sunday to claim a fourth win in five tries following their dismal 3-14 start, the 76ers are now tied in the loss column with the Bulls and Detroit Pistons for the 10th and final play-in spot in the Eastern Conference standings — the latest reminder of how forgiving the bottom of the East can be.

Still, this team is built around Embiid, and the lingering question is how his knee will respond moving forward after playing 33 minutes Sunday. The 76ers have three games over the next 12 days due to the break in the schedule for the NBA to complete the second edition of the Emirates NBA Cup — a period Nurse said he plans to operate like another training camp of sorts to get his team back onto the same page.

Embiid himself said he’s still working through the issues with his knee, and that time will tell how it responds to his latest ramp up to play. For now, though, the 76ers — who spent a couple extra hours at the arena waiting for a plane issue to be fixed Sunday after the win — are just happy to have their team on the court, and to finally be building some small bits of momentum.

“It felt great,” George said. “It felt great to finally gets some consistency with Big Fella out there and myself and [Tyrese]. It felt good to kind of put the team back together and log some minutes today.”