Following Joel Embiid’s return to the floor on Tuesday night, the Philadelphia 76ers were fined $100,000 by the NBA on Friday for breaking the league’s injury reporting regulations.
Embiid was unexpectedly upgraded to questionable before 76ers coach Nick Nurse spoke at approximately 5:45 p.m. ahead of the home game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Embiid had been labeled as out for Tuesday’s game for the previous twenty-four hours. At 7 p.m., Embiid was then listed as available and started in the starting lineup.
The league claimed that consideration was given to Philadelphia’s past of paying fines for breaking injury reporting regulations.
Similar to this week, Embiid was recuperating from a knee ailment when he returned to the court in a similar fashion for Game 3 of the second-round playoff series against the Miami Heat two years prior, for which Philadelphia was fined $50,000.
After missing over eight weeks due to surgery on his left knee’s lateral meniscus, Embiid returned to the court on Tuesday, and the Philadelphia 76ers triumphed in Miami on Thursday. The 76ers now have a chance to escape the play-in games by moving up to sixth place in the Eastern Conference rankings.
The three teams vying for the sixth, seventh, and eighth spots—Philadelphia, Miami, and the Indiana Pacers—all had 46 wins predicted by ESPN’s Basketball Power Index as of Friday night.
The two teams split their four games this season, but Philadelphia’s victory over Miami meant that the tiebreaker would go to the club with the better conference record. But Indiana has the tiebreaker, and if they defeat the Heat on Sunday, they can secure the victory against Miami.
In his two games back, Embiid has made a significant impact. Against the Thunder, he scored 24 points, including the game-winning steal and the clutch free throw. In the victory on Thursday in Miami, he finished with 29 points in 32 minutes.
It is improbable that Embiid will play in both the Philadelphia Eagles’ final road games on Saturday in Memphis and Sunday in San Antonio. As he continues to heal, the team is anticipated to give him part of that back-to-back off. If all goes according to plan, he should be able to play in all three of the regular season’s last home games against the Detroit Pistons, Orlando Magic, and Brooklyn Nets the following week.