PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia 76ers were able to knock off the Charlotte Hornets 108-98 on Friday in the return of Joel Embiid from a right sinus fracture. The big fella had 34 points and nine assists in 31 minutes of action.

Embiid was able to take the game over late as the Sixers continued to feed him the ball after the Hornets had cut a 23-point deficit down to just four in the fourth quarter. That is when Philadelphia was able to just give the ball to the 2023 MVP winner and the Sixers rode him to the win.

"I thought he looked good," coach Nick Nurse said after the win. "I thought he looked good. He obviously was scoring the ball after, again, little bit of a slow start. He got a good number of assists, especially early. He looked pretty good."

With that being said, one has to wonder about Embiid's status for Saturday's contest against the Cleveland Cavaliers. He has yet to play on the second night of a back-to-back and that will remain the same in this instance as the Sixers will rule Embiid out against the Cavs.

All in all, Embiid had 12 points in the fourth on 6-for-12 shooting with five rebounds. He looked like himself and Nurse and the Sixers continued to trust him.

"I think there's no hesitation to trust him," Nurse said. "At least certainly just initially, and then you're going to see right where you are in the first couple possessions. I know it's a small thing, but we snuck a little Tyrese (Maxey) screening for Paul (George) on the side in there. That was a pretty big bucket by Paul to go down there. He hadn't really shot the ball very well, but that was a pretty big bucket and I think they ran a couple actions where they kicked wide to Paul for a wide open 3. He didn't make that one, but again, I was kind of like that's the right play. I think there'll be more of that kind of stuff."