Joel Embiid felt he took "a good step" towards getting back to full fitness, after returning from injury in the Philadelphia 76ers' defeat to the Atlanta Hawks.

The star center made his first appearance in 10 games, after missing three weeks of action with right knee soreness.

However, his return could not prevent the 76ers from going down 142-134 at Wells Fargo Center on Sunday.

Nevertheless, Embiid did manage to play a season-high 30 minutes, while scoring 18 points on six-of-14 shooting.

"I thought the first half was pretty good," he said. "When it's been almost a month and you've only had about two court sessions, going up and down, it's going to be tough.

final in double OT. @cryptocom pic.twitter.com/CEI7Ut88NM

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) December 1, 2025

"I'm just happy that I got a chance to play the game of basketball, build on it and go from there.

"I don't really judge myself based on shots falling. Tonight is all about how I moved laterally, jumping and all that stuff. Tonight was a good step towards that."

Ultimately, though, it was the Hawks who prevailed in double overtime, with Jalen Johnson scoring a team-high 41 points along the way.

"I think it was more about perseverance than it was poise," Hawks coach Quin Snyder said.

"But I think when we didn't have poise, or we made mistakes, we were able to move forward and made enough plays when it counted, and we put ourselves in a position [to win]. We're just happy it went our way."