The NBA fined the Philadelphia 76ers $100,000 Friday for violating the league’s injury reporting rules regarding Joel Embiid’s return to the court Tuesday night.

Embiid, who had been listed as out for Tuesday’s game for 24 hours, was suddenly upgraded to questionable just before 76ers coach Nick Nurse spoke around 5:45pm prior to Tuesday night’s home game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. He then was declared available, and placed into the starting lineup, at 7pm.

The league said in its release announcing the fine, which was widely expected to occur in the wake of Embiid’s unorthodox return to the court, that the team’s prior history with fines for violating the injury reporting rules was taken into account.

Two years ago, Philadelphia was hit with a $50,000 fine for Embiid returning to the court in a similar manner for Game 3 of the 76ers second round series against the Miami Heat — when, like this week, Embiid was also returning from a knee injury.

With Embiid back on the court after missing over eight weeks following a procedure on the lateral meniscus in his left knee, Philadelphia not only beat Oklahoma City Tuesday, but also won in Miami Thursday. As a result, the 76ers have given themselves a real opportunity to get into the sixth spot in the Eastern Conference standings, and avoid the play-in games as a result.

Entering Friday night’s action, ESPN’s Basketball Power Index has the three teams battling for the sixth, seventh and eight spots — Philadelphia, Miami and the Indiana Pacers — all projected to finish tied with 46 wins.

Philadelphia’s victory over Miami meant the tiebreaker will go to better conference record, as the two teams split their four games between each other this season. Indiana, however, holds the tiebreaker over Philadelphia, and has a chance to clinch it over Miami with a win against the Heat on Sunday.

For his part, Embiid has been impactful in his two games back on the court, scoring 24 points — including getting the game-clinching steal and hitting the game-winning free throws – in the win over the Thunder before finishing with 29 points in 32 minutes in Thursday’s win in Miami.

Embiid is unlikely to play both Saturday’s game in Memphis and Sunday’s game in San Antonio to complete Philadelphia’s final road trip of the season, as the team is expected to give him one half of the that back-to-back off as he continues his recovery. He would then, presuming no setbacks occur, be in position to play each of the final three games of the regular season next week at home against the Detroit Pistons, Orlando Magic and Brooklyn Nets.