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<\/p>\nPHILADELPHIA \u2014 Joel Embiid scored 35 points in his return to the lineup from injury, Paul George had 28 points in his first game since serving a 25-game suspension, and the Philadelphia 76ers rolled to a 157-137 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
Josh Giddey scored 23 points to lead the Bulls.<\/p>\n
Embiid missed 13 games with a strained right oblique but showed no signs of rust. The 2023 MVP made 6 of 9 shots in the first period, including all three of his 3-point tries. He had 23 points in the first half to help Philadelphia take a 71-52 halftime lead.<\/p>\n
George was not as sharp early but settled in after halftime. <\/p>\n
Playing for the first time since Jan. 29 due to a violation of the NBA’s drug policy, he missed 8 of 10 field goals in the opening half and had five points, but scored 23 points in the second half.<\/p>\n
George was cheered throughout the night, especially after converting on three consecutive possessions early in the fourth quarter. Philadelphia was 13-12 without George, who signed a four-year, $212 million deal with the 76ers before the 2024 season but has been sidelined frequently by injury and suspension. George finished 11 of 22 from the field and 6 of 13 from long range.<\/p>\n
Philadelphia still was without All-Star Tyrese Maxey, who missed his 10th straight game due to a right finger tendon strain. Kelly Oubre Jr. (left elbow strain) also was sidelined for the eighth consecutive contest. Oubre has been cleared to return to on-court activities and participated in Wednesday morning’s shootaround, a team spokesperson said before the game.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Philadelphia 76ers’ Joel Embiid, right, blocks a shot by Chicago Bulls’ Guerschon Yabusele during the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in Philadelphia. Credit: AP\/Matt Slocum<\/p>\n
VJ Edgecome added 22 points for the 76ers.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
Bulls: At Oklahoma City on Friday night.<\/p>\n
76ers: At Charlotte on Saturday night. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Joel Embiid scored 35 points in his return to the lineup from injury, Paul George had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[15350,4794,69,71,70,5342],"class_list":["post-148811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-nba","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-wires-bot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}