CHICAGO – After 76ers center Joel Embiid finished with 31 points and 12 rebounds in Philadelphia’s 108-100 win over the Bulls on Sunday, he admitted it was a difficult process for him mentally to get his left knee into a fixed state to bring him where he can play.

“Depressing,” Embiid told ESPN when asked what the last few months have been like for him. “I’m just trying to figure it out. There is no injury. Just between the swelling…we have to figure it out. That’s all.”

“I’ve been saying that for a few months. It’s extremely depressing. It’s something you haven’t figured out yet and it was extremely annoying because I wanted to play every single game.”

Embiid missed the first nine games of the season because of his knee and a league suspension. He returned to play in four games – including a 35-point performance at Memphis on November 20 – before being suspended again and missing the last two and a half weeks due to swelling in his knee and personal reasons .

That time off the field ended on Sunday when Embiid — after being upgraded to the questionable Saturday — went through his normal pregame workout a little less than an hour before tipoff and then back in along with fellow All-Stars Tyrese The starting lineup included Maxey and Paul George.

Before Sunday’s game, the three had shared the court for just six minutes – all in the loss at Memphis when George hyperextended his left knee for the second time in about a month.

But against Chicago there was a first glimpse of what they can do. The trio played 26 minutes together on Sunday, with the 76ers outscoring the Bulls by 14 points during that span.

Therefore, Embiid still believes that despite the difficult start to the season, the 76ers, who have now picked up wins in four of their last five games after opening the season 3-14, still have time to make things happen for them had decided on it before the season started.

“It starts with health,” Embiid told ESPN. “It felt good to have the boys on the field. I think when we’re healthy and on the field we have a chance against anyone and I like what we have.”

“I think this whole thing is about health… that’s what matters. I wish I could have played from the beginning. I would love to play every single game, every single minute, but sometimes your body just says, “No,” and there’s nothing you can do about it, just keep working to fix it and get better.

The 76ers trailed by 10 after the first quarter and were lucky it wasn’t twice as much. Embiid missed all six of his shots in the quarter and the Bulls, led by 30 points from Zach LaVine, looked like they could run Philadelphia right off the court.

“I said it a couple times on the bench,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said. “I thought, ‘Whoa, we could be down…we’re playing so bad, aren’t we? Really bad. We were five points behind a few minutes ago. I thought, ‘How are we doing at five?'”

In the end they weren’t down for long. After missing his first seven shots of the game, Embiid made eight of his next 10 and single-handedly outscored the Bulls (19-17) in the second quarter as Philadelphia scored 39 points in the quarter and took a lead it would never relinquish .

Many of those Embiid shots came from passes from Maxey, who posted his first career triple-double with 25 points, 11 rebounds and 14 assists; Ten of those assists went to Embiid, according to ESPN Research.

“It was great,” Maxey said of Embiid’s return to the court. “I mean, that’s just who he is. Whatever, they can’t catch ball screens, you know what I mean? Either, or if they don’t drive I can score 3 points, or if they drop too much and help me too much, I pass to him in the pocket and he’s able to get a layup or a (mid-range jumper).. .that makes the game easier.”

The 76ers are now tied with the Bulls and Detroit Pistons for the 10th and final play-in spot in the Eastern Conference standings, the latest reminder of how forgiving the East’s bottom team is.

Still, this team is built around Embiid, and the lingering question is how his knee will react moving forward after 33 minutes of play on Sunday. The 76ers have three games remaining in the next 12 days as the league’s schedule to complete the NBA Cup is disrupted. Nurse said he plans to run this stretch as another training camp of sorts to get his team back up to par.

Embiid said he is still working on the issues with his knee and time will tell how it responds to his recent game preparation. For now, the 76ers — who spent a few extra hours in the arena waiting for a plane issue to be fixed after the win — are just happy to finally pick up some momentum.

“It felt great,” George said. “It felt great to finally get some consistency with the big guy out there, me and (Tyrese). It felt good to kind of get the team back together and get some minutes in today.”