Joel Embiid is back. The Sixers now must rush to reintegrate him with playoffs looming.

“Go faster,” Nick Nurse thought to himself, as Joel Embiid took a steal the opposite way and Chet Holmgren attempted to catch the reigning MVP.

“At that point, I was like, ‘Might as well go for it and try to get the and-one,’” Embiid added when asked to recall that sequence. “I just happened to lose the ball.”

Still, Embiid drew contact and hit the free throws that put the 76ers up three points with less than 30 seconds remaining Tuesday night. That was one impact play from Embiid during a fourth quarter filled with them, helping propel the 76ers to a 109-105 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder in his return from left knee surgery.

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Embiid has cleared the most significant recovery hurdle, returning to the floor eight weeks after the procedure to repair his meniscus. He totaled 24 points, seven assists, six rebounds, and three steals in his first game back. The next task is the continued rapid reintegration among a group that sputtered in his absence, with six regular-season games remaining for the 41-35 Sixers before the playoffs or, more likely, the play-in tournament.

“It’s like the first day of school again,” teammate Kelly Oubre Jr. said of having Embiid back. “You’re kind of coming back from spring break or winter break, and you know you’ve got your friend back. He’s the cool guy in class that we’ve definitely been missing. …

“But that’s our team. We built this team around him, and we have to continue to just polish the pieces around it so we can be a well-oiled machine.”

Embiid, however, was self-critical Tuesday. He acknowledged after the game that the injury — which interrupted his torrid and historic offensive production worthy of contention for a second consecutive MVP — took a mental toll, calling it “depressing” and “disappointing.” He downplayed his performance against the Thunder, saying, “I thought I was pretty bad.” He added that he was “extremely careless” on a night when he committed six turnovers. And he was clearly fatigued, with Nurse subbing him out for mid-quarter breaks before Embiid summoned the energy to fuel his team’s rally from 11 points down to win.

“It’s going to take me a while to get back to myself,” Embiid said. “And really trust myself.”

Teammates, however, were not shy about how Embiid’s presence impacts this team.

What opened up the space for Oubre’s 17-point fourth quarter? “Obviously, [Embiid] demands a lot of attention.”

How did guard Cameron Payne snag 10 rebounds? “Joel. They worry about him. He’s boxing out three people. I’ve just got to come out there and swoop in and get some.”

How did the Sixers crank up their defense down the stretch? “Him. He’s 7-foot-11, tall as a tree, as big as an ox,” Oubre said.

That is the end of the floor where Nurse believes Embiid can provide the most immediate boost, to a unit that has sharpened its schemes in recent weeks even while perimeter harassers De’Anthony Melton and Robert Covington have remained sidelined. Following an awful February, their first month without Embiid, the Sixers ranked 13th in the NBA in defensive efficiency (112.4 points allowed per 100 possessions) over their last 15 games entering Wednesday.

“Some of those [Thunder] drives didn’t look as productive,” Nurse said.

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The Sixers offense, meanwhile, was, in Nurse’s words, “very clunky” and, in Embiid’s words, “all over the place.” The coach lamented “a zillion missed spacing things that we’ve got to fix” while adding Embiid back to the mix. After learning more about Oubre’s fit with this roster in recent weeks, for instance, Nurse believes the athletic wing’s ability to turn the corner and put pressure on the rim can force defenses into a tough choice when Embiid sets a screen.

Yet perhaps most important will be Embiid gaining chemistry with Payne, Kyle Lowry, and Buddy Hield, the three rotation players who did not join the Sixers until after Embiid’s injury.

Payne described Embiid as another point guard, impressed with how he invites double teams and makes passes. Nurse envisions Hield’s potential like JJ Redick, Seth Curry, or Tyrese Maxey, to whom Embiid can drop off passes to “sprint into” outside shots. Though Lowry initially reacted to the late news that Embiid would return Tuesday with “I don’t know how to play with this dude,” according to Nurse, their history with the Toronto Raptors helped Lowry learn on the fly.

“Come off there with some pace, you can hit him in the pocket,” Nurse told Lowry during the game.

“Oh yeah, like Serge [Ibaka],” responded Lowry, a reference to one of his big-man partners with the Raptors.

Nurse said before Friday’s loss at the Cleveland Cavaliers that he expects some hiccups during this readjustment phase. Returning to full health would also help the Sixers, after the All-Star Maxey missed his second consecutive game with hip tightness and Melton and Covington continued their months-long absences.

Embiid said Tuesday that he will play as long as the knee responds positively. The Sixers next face the Miami Heat on Thursday in a road game with significant implications in the standings. Then they have a back-to-back at the Memphis Grizzlies and San Antonio Spurs on Saturday and Sunday, which Embiid playfully scoffed that the medical staff has advised he “should never play … in my life.” Nurse added he would not be surprised if Embiid’s conditioning has returned in another game or two.

And during and around those games, daily repetition and communication with teammates will be crucial.

That was already happening Tuesday inside the postgame locker room, when Embiid and Hield struck up a conversation about when to shoot and when to cut.

“We’ll figure it out,” Hield said.

Nurse’s internal thoughts — “go faster” — could apply here, too.