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The NBA fined the Philadelphia 76ers $100,000 on Friday for violating the league’s injury reporting rules after Joel Embiid’s return to the court Tuesday night.
Embiid, who had been listed as out for Tuesday’s game for 24 hours, was suddenly upgraded to questionable just before 76ers coach Nick Nurse spoke around 5:45 p.m. before the home game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Embiid then was declared available and placed into the starting lineup at 7 p.m.\
The league said that Philadelphia’s history with fines for violating injury reporting rules was taken into account.
Two years ago, Philadelphia was fined $50,000 for Embiid returning to the court in a similar manner for Game 3 of the second-round playoff series against the Miami Heat when, like this week, Embiid was also returning from a knee injury.
With Embiid on the court after missing more than eight weeks following a procedure on the lateral meniscus in his left knee, Philadelphia not only beat Oklahoma City Tuesday, but also won Thursday in Miami. The 76ers now have an opportunity to get into the sixth spot in the Eastern Conference standings and avoid the play-in games.
Entering Friday night, ESPN’s Basketball Power Index has the three teams battling for the sixth, seventh and eight spots — Philadelphia, Miami and the Indiana Pacers — all projected to finish with 46 wins.
Philadelphia’s victory over Miami meant the tiebreaker will go to better conference record, as the two teams split their four games this season. Indiana, however, holds the tiebreaker and has a chance to clinch it over Miami with a win against the Heat on Sunday.
Embiid has been impactful in his two games back, scoring 24 points — including getting the game-clinching steal and hitting the winning free throws — against the Thunder. He finished with 29 points in 32 minutes in Thursday’s win in Miami.
Embiid is unlikely to play both Saturday in Memphis and Sunday in San Antonio to complete Philadelphia’s final road trip. The team is expected to give him one-half of the that back-to-back off as he continues his recovery. With no setbacks, he’d be in position to play each of the final three games of the regular season next week at home against the Detroit Pistons, Orlando Magic and Brooklyn Nets.
