What a difference Joel Embiid can make.

Without him, the Sixers ended their short road trip with a 107-91 loss against the Houston Rockets.

With him back in the lineup, they came back in the second half to beat Indiana 106-89. A long cold streak by the Pacers for most of the third helped as well.

Embiid had a hell of a return with a team-high 33 points and 12 rebounds to go along with a couple of steals. Tobias Harris had 16 points, Ben Simmons, who Kobe Bryant said needs a jumper, scored 15, and Jimmy Butler put up 12. It makes up for the bench, which totaled up just 21 points.

But Embiid’s return will be huge moving toward the playoffs, especially if the Sixers want that #3 seed again. With the win, the Sixers own the tiebreaker over the Pacers. They play Cleveland and Sacramento at home this week before going on the road to play Milwaukee next Sunday.

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The Roundup:

Bryce Harper made his (Spring Training) debut with the Phillies and drew a walk. But Rhys Hoskins then hit a huge dinger to bring him home. Who cares about the result of that game? Harper is a Phillie. He’s expected to play right field for the Phils this afternoon against the Rays.

The Flyers somehow are keeping themselves alive in the wild card hunt after a dominating 5-2 win over the Islanders on Saturday. They scored five unanswered goals after New York opened the scoring in the first period.

But Jake Voracek was suspended two games for a hit against Johnny Boychuk in the 3rd period. He thinks it’s a joke:

They host the Senators tonight at 7 PM on NBC Sports Philadelphia.

Whether the Flyers make the playoffs or not (probably not), expect them to maybe look at restricted free agents.

The Eagles made a move at the end of the week by trading Michael Bennett and a 2020 7th round pick to the Patriots for a 5th rounder in 2020. Bennett wanted a pay raise than a pay cut earlier in the day.

As one player leaves, one wants to come back. That’s DeSean Jackson.

As free agency and the new league year begin later this week, Tevin Coleman is definitely on the team’s radar.

In college hoops:

  • Seton Hall upset (?) Villanova 79-75, but the Wildcats are Big East regular season champs and will play Thursday as the top seed.
  • Temple defeated UCF in Fran Dunphy’s final regular season home game. They’re the #3 seed in the AAC Tournament and will play on Friday.
  • La Salle crushed Fordham on Senior Day. They’re the #9 seed in the A10 Tournament and will play Rhode Island on Thursday.
  • Penn beat Yale and Brown this weekend. The Quakers are the #4 seed and will play top-seeded Harvard on Saturday.
  • St. Joe’s fell to VCU in their regular season finale. They’re the 10th seed and will play Duquesne on Thursday.
  • Drexel‘s season is over with a 73-61 loss to the College of Charleston in the CAA Quarterfinals.

The Union lost to Sporting Kansas City 2-0 on Sunday. They’ll play Atlanta United Sunday night.

In other sports news, Antonio Brown is now a Raider and the highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL.

FanDuel Sportsbook at Valley Forge Casino is soft launching today and tomorrow, with a grand opening on Wednesday.

Sixers owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer are selling Crystal Palace.

The Giants traded Olivier Vernon, the Redskins got Case Keenum, and the Cowboys lost David Irving to weed.

Atlantic City’s new Arena Football League team is called the Blackjacks.

In the news, Philly police are looking for a naked gunman.

157 people were killed when an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 crashed.