Wearing Kobe’s No. 24, Joel Embiid scores 24 in a fitting tribute | David Murphy

The splint was off the hand by the time Joel Embiid left the court. A minute after the last of his teammates streamed through the tunnel and down the corridor and into the locker room, the big man’s silhouette appeared. His eyes were stern, his face expressionless, his shirt untucked.

It had been 22 days since the big man had been in uniform, a stretch of three-plus weeks he’d sat in his street clothes and watched as his Sixers teammates ground their way to six wins in nine games without him. Now, he was back, and if you hadn’t remembered the white piece of plastic encasing his fingers during 26 minutes he’d spent on the court, you’d never have known that he’d left. He slapped hands with the fans, the support staff, the security guards.

Behind him, a 115-104 win glowed on the scoreboard, and with 34 games remaining in the regular season, things with the Sixers felt as right as they’ve been all season.

This was not a normal night, of course. Not close. Instead of the usual No. 21 on his jersey, Embiid wore No. 24 after receiving the pregame blessing from Sixers legend Bobby Jones to don his retired number in honor of the late Kobe Bryant.

After the game, Embiid explained that his love for the game of basketball originated with the 2010 NBA Finals between the Celtics and Bryant’s Lakers, and that he credited Bryant’s passion for the game for igniting him a desire to chase his dream of becoming a stateside hoops star.

“After watching him I just wanted to play basketball,” Embiid said. “If it wasn’t for that moment, I don’t think I would have been here.”

On Tuesday, he was there for the first time since Jan. 6, when he tore a ligament in his finger in a 120-113 win over the Thunder that snapped a four-game losing streak and halted what may have been the Sixers most disconcerting slide of the season.

When it was revealed the following day that Embiid’s injury would require surgery, it was easy to assume that the oft-injured star had arrived at the annual juncture of the season that ensures he will arrive at the postseason as a shadow of his optimal self. Most players with similar injuries see a 6-to-8 week recovery timetable, with many returning around the 40-day mark. Such a recovery would have made it fair to wonder if Embiid would be able to find his sea legs and the Sixers would be able to reintegrate him into their team in time to enter the postseason at their peak.

Yet over the last week, it became clear that Embiid was ahead of schedule, which only added to the good energy that has buoyed this team as of late. The Sixers ended up winning six of the nine games that Embiid was sidelined, including big victories over the Celtics and Lakers. That left them within striking distance of second place in the East with Embiid rejoining the fold for the final 34 games.

“Obviously I came back earlier than I was supposed to, but I felt good,” Embiid said. “We’ve got a tough stretch coming now. We’ve got some big games. I want to go into the All-Star break in a place other than No. 6. That is the reason why I played today.”

The one good thing about Embiid’s annual/semi-annual injury hiatuses is that they give us an opportunity to appreciate with fresh eyes the impact of his presence. Anybody who professes to believe that the Sixers might somehow be better off without him is, quite simply, somebody who does not watch this team with regularity and intention. The entire nature of the thing changes when he is on the court, and Tuesday was no different. He scored 24 points, sank nine of 13 shots, grabbed eight boards, finished with a plus-11. He was calm, in control, hampered only slightly by the brace immobilizing his fingers.

“Just his presence,” coach Brett Brown said of Embiid’s impact. “His size. His ability to find ways to score. We played him at an elbow. We played him at a post. We put him in some two-man action. For his first game back, it was pretty impressive.”