PHILADELPHIA _ Of the many impressive things about Joel Embiid's return to the court in Tuesday night's home win over the Golden State Warriors, his conditioning was near the top of the list.
Embiid was sidelined for nine games with a torn ligament in his left ring finger, which he suffered Jan. 6, in a 120-113 home win over Oklahoma City.
In Tuesday's 115-104 win, Embiid had 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the field, while adding 10 rebounds in 26 minutes, 15 seconds.
Embiid didn't appear to be laboring as he ran up and down the court, especially after so much time off.
"He looks like he is in way better shape than I expected," coach Brett Brown said Wednesday, before the team headed to Atlanta for Thursday's game against the 12-36 Hawks.
"I think defensively, for the most part in transition defense, he was really in the right spot, making the effort to get in the right spot."
That was a positive sign for Brown.
"Usually, the thing that stands out the most to me with Jo is his condition," Brown said. "It didn't, and I think he deserves credit, he must have really gone overboard with his cardio work. I have been told he did, but when you see it is when you believe it, and I saw it, and he must have."
While Embiid was out, the Sixers went 6-3. Before that, they were 3-4 in games he missed this season.
Either way, the three-time All-Star will have the biggest impact on whether the Sixers make a deep postseason run.
After the game, Embiid said there was no soreness in his finger.
"I am fine, I am wearing a lot of straps ... on it," he said about his finger.
"I will probably blame that on the amount of turnovers I had," he joked.
That would be five turnovers.
After his Jan. 9 surgery on the finger, Embiid couldn't do any conditioning for five or six days, he said.
"You kind of lose your conditioning, but the past five or six days or so we have been ramping up a lot and running up and down the court and trying to get back into it," Embiid said. On Tuesday night, "I was OK, I can do a much better job, but it was good to see, and I am only going to get better."
For the Sixers to move up in the standings, he will need to get better conditioning-wise. Tuesday was a solid start, but how Embiid fares in the seven games before the All-Star break will be a better barometer.
