Tim Bontemps
Multiple Authors
PHILADELPHIA — Joel Embiid is back in the lineup for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal sequence between the (*4*) and Boston Celtics on Sunday night time, 2½ weeks after present process an emergency appendectomy in Houston.
Embiid, who had been listed as uncertain for each Game 3 Friday night time and Game 4, was upgraded to questionable a bit greater than an hour earlier than tipoff. He was then introduced as out there a half-hour earlier than tip, and reclaimed his customary place in the beginning lineup from second-year middle Adem Bona.
It stays unclear how a lot Embiid, 32, will be capable of play. He started a strength-and-conditioning program in Philadelphia final Monday, staying residence for the primary two video games of this sequence in Boston — which the 76ers cut up. And though the crew’s medical doctors had been happy together with his progress forward of Game 3, together with Embiid returning to parts of observe Thursday and shootaround Friday, he was finally dominated out two hours earlier than tip.
He then took half in shootaround once more Sunday morning, solely this time to be given the inexperienced mild to return.
The shock appendectomy was the most recent health-related misfortune to befall Embiid throughout his postseason profession. Outside of 2020, when Philadelphia was swept contained in the NBA’s bubble in Orlando, Embiid has handled some type of harm in every postseason look of his profession.
He had Bell’s palsy in the course of the first spherical sequence with the New York Knicks two years in the past, in addition to getting back from a knee harm late in that common season; a proper knee sprain in 2023; a fractured orbital bone in each 2022 and 2018; a meniscus harm in 2021; and knee tendinitis in 2019.
Embiid performed 38 video games this season, averaging 26.9 factors and seven.7 rebounds.
