Joel Embiid returns to Sixers’ lineup after missing three games with foot soreness

Joel Embiid will return for the 76ers’ Tuesday night against the Detroit Pistons after missing the previous three games with left foot soreness.

The All-NBA center was listed as questionable on the NBA’s official injury report leading into Tuesday’s game, but coach Doc Rivers was optimistic about Embiid’s availability after he participated in shootaround and went through his pregame workout.

Embiid has played like an MVP contender when healthy, ranking second in the league in scoring at 33.5 points per game and adding 9.8 rebounds, a career-best 4.6 assists and 1.7 blocks in 28 games.

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Starting forward P.J. Tucker, who missed Sunday’s game in Detroit with a sinus infection, will also return after missing Sunday’s win in Detroit. He and Embiid will start alongside James Harden, Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris — meaning De’Anthony Melton will move back to a reserve role, after starting since mid-November when Harden and Maxey went down with foot injuries.

While Embiid has been out, Montrezl Harrell has excelled as a backup and starting center, scoring a season-high 20 points in Sunday’s win over the Pistons and shooting 75% from the floor during his last three games. Paul Reed was also an effective backup on Sunday, finishing with 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting and adding 12 rebounds.

The home game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday will mark the midway point of the Sixers’ regular season. And when asked about the most important areas in which his team must improve, Melton answered with transition defense.

That has been a weakness for a unit that entered Tuesday ranked fourth in the NBA in defensive efficiency (109.9 points per 100 possessions) and has been a top-five unit for the majority of the season. The Sixers were the second-worst team in the league in fastbreak points allowed (16.4 per game) entering Tuesday.

“We understand that,” said Melton, one of the league’s most disruptive perimeter defenders. “… Those things we can grow in, just giving us more motivation to what we can be defensively and keep climbing that ladder. Because we feel like we can be the No. 1 team defensively and we can keep getting better at it.”

The Sixers have also recently struggled at defending the three-point line, ranking 29th in opponent percentage (41.8) and 27th with 13.2 per game allowed over their last six games entering Tuesday. The New Orleans Pelicans’ CJ McCollum and the Chicago Bulls’ Zach LaVine each hit 11 three-pointers in wins over the Sixers during that span.

Rivers cautioned Sunday that, despite the Pistons’ 11-32 record and recent loss to the Sixers, Tuesday’s rematch would be “rough” because of the difficulty of beating the same opponent twice in a row.

The Sixers’ coach has some data from which to draw. They have split three of their four previous two-game sets against the Toronto Raptors (lost the first, won the second), Washington Wizards (won the first, lost the second) and Atlanta Hawks (lost the first, won the second). They won consecutive games at the Orlando Magic in late November.

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When asked about the scheduling quirk, however, Melton said, “I ain’t gonna lie, I do kind of like it.”

“Especially if you lose the first one,” Melton added. “You got to see where you messed up on. You get to see other players’ tendencies and stuff like that, so now you can fix it. But it’s always better coming off a win … but you don’t want to be lackadaisical coming out of tonight’s game, because you know they’re going to come out hungry coming off a loss.”

The Sixers have three more such sets against the Magic at home on Jan. 30 and Feb. 1, against the Miami Heat at home on Feb. 27 and on the road March 1, and against the Chicago Bulls at home on March 20 and on the road on March 22.