Back at the scene of his knee injury, Joel Embiid is on the ‘right path’ to a return to form

SAN FRANCISCO — Joel Embiid acknowledged the flashbacks that surfaced when he entered the Chase Center on Thursday. The last time the 76ers’ superstar was inside the home of the Golden State Warriors, he was on his back clutching his left knee in agony.

It has been nearly a year since Jonathan Kuminga inadvertently fell on Embiid while both players tried to corral a loose ball, causing a meniscus tear that required surgery. The injury upended a 2023-24 season in which the then-reigning MVP had been putting up historic numbers, sidelining him for two months while his team slipped down the standings and into a first-round playoff loss to the New York Knicks. It then delayed his debut in a highly anticipated 2024-25 season and caused choppy availability that heavily contributed to his team’s 3-14 start.

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And those broad strokes do not even begin to cover all the stuff in between then and now. An Olympic gold medal, splashy free-agency signings, a second baby announcement. Coping with a bout of Bell’s palsy in the spring that made his face go numb; another facial fracture this month. And don’t forget the suspension because of a locker-room shove; and a Christmas tumble into a ropelike barrier during a pregame warmup.

Yet Embiid’s return to the Bay Area also came at a time when he is finally achieving a smidgen of normalcy and consistency. That has, unsurprisingly, coincided with the Sixers’ improved play before back-to-back losses — including a 139-105 season-worst defeat to the Warriors — to conclude a four-game Western Conference swing.

“It’s hard to forget,” Embiid said when asked about the injury from his last time playing at the Chase Center. “But when you’re in those situations, you play … not scared, but you’re kind of more careful than usual. I’m glad I’m all good at this time.”

Embiid has played in six of the Sixers’ past eight games, with the only two absences coming as part of back-to-backs in which Embiid may never fully participate again.

He scored a season-high 37 points in the Sixers’ win at the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday, when he began the game by launching his near-automatic midrange jumper and then shifted to decisive drives to his left hand when the defense adjusted to press him. Two nights prior, he rolled more to the basket off screens as part of a nearly unstoppable two-man game with Tyrese Maxey in a win at the Utah Jazz.

Perhaps even more encouraging: Embiid has logged more than 30 minutes in each of those six outings, except when he was ejected with two technicals during a Dec. 23 home win over the San Antonio Spurs. That suggests his knee (and a sprained foot sustained on Christmas that he also currently is nursing) can handle that game-to-game workload.

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Embiid also shared Monday that he is taking subtle precautions to limit extra force on his knee, legs, and feet that could “put you in a bad position,” such as not jumping as much for rebounds (his 7.6 average would be a career-low) and instead using his body to take his man out of the play. He also is not recklessly going for loose balls, in an attempt to protect his masked face from getting hit again.

Otherwise?

“Just a lot of prayers,” Embiid said.

Still, these appear to be positive steps compared to earlier this season, when Embiid was still searching for trust in his knee’s capabilities. He has candidly shared that the lengthy recovery period — then the uncertainty of when swelling would sideline him again — left him feeling depressed at times. He recently revealed he has spoken to a therapist.

And a couple opponents on Thursday had a more intimate understanding of how Embiid has taken care of his body post-surgery. Warriors coach Steve Kerr and superstar Stephen Curry also were part of that Olympic run. Kerr said Team USA’s training staff, along with Embiid’s personal trainer, worked collaboratively to manage the knee as he “started to find his groove offensively” as their weeks together progressed. Some outsiders have criticized Embiid for choosing to play in the Games in the injury’s aftermath, but Embiid has repeatedly pushed back, citing the magnitude of that experience.

“It doesn’t mean a lot to Americans, winning the gold medal,” Embiid said following Thursday’s game. “But where I’m from, it means a lot to me. So that’s a big-time accomplishment, and they can never take that away from me, from any of us.”

From a tactical basketball standpoint, Embiid is not yet back to the machinelike dominance, when he was scoring more than a point per minute and dropped a career-high 70 days before his surgery.

He is shooting 44.8% from the floor, a career-low in a 12-game sample size. Though it has been natural for him to click back into the lethal offensive tandem with Maxey, where they can manipulate the defense from several spots on the floor, Embiid also has stressed the importance of getting teammates involved (particularly, perennial All-Star newcomer Paul George) out of those actions. Embiid added that he also has not yet reached his typical force as a defensive anchor, encouraging the Sixers’ perimeter athletes to be ultra-aggressive in front of him.

Embiid wishes he had been on the floor to “kind of stabilize everything” down the stretch of what he called a “terrible” Wednesday loss at the Sacramento Kings, when the Sixers were outscored, 15-0, to end the game. Against Golden State the following night, Maxey and coach Nick Nurse lamented that they did not establish Embiid early enough in his 28-point performance. The big man missed four of his six first-quarter shots. And by the time he caught some second-half rhythm — a dead-on three-pointer, a falling and-1, an 11-of-14 mark from the free-throw line — his team had already dug an insurmountable hole.

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“We didn’t come out hard enough, as far as playing both ends,” Embiid said. “That’s on me, too. I’ve got to be aggressive from the start.”

Added Maxey: “He already causes a lot [of attention]. But if we can continue to do that, it frees it up, not just for myself, but for other guys. … I personally didn’t do a good job of that tonight.”

Less than an hour before Thursday’s tipoff, Embiid sat quietly at his corner locker, strapping a bulky brace onto that knee before his pregame shooting routine. The accessory was a tangible reminder of what occurred on that same floor nearly a year ago.

The good news: This time, Embiid was able to linger for postgame greetings, rather than limp off before the final buzzer.

Although Embiid has now cleared this metaphoric hurdle — flashbacks included — more steps still remain to, in his words, get back to himself.

“It’s getting better,” Embiid said from Utah. “Still not close to where I want to be. But ultimately, hopefully, it keeps going. It’s going in the right path. [I’m] feeling pretty good, so just going to hope for the best.”