Hope is not a strategy. It is a lack of options. Right now, it is all the Sixers have. They can hope that Joel Embiid is back for good. They can hope that his knee responds to its latest test. They can hope that he is still a player who makes a team a contender.

Joel Embiid had jokes expense after a successful return to the court for the Philadelphia 76ers in Tuesday's 118-116 win over the Dallas Mavericks.

With the Sixers down to an eight-man rotation against Boston Sunday without Gordon, Justin Edwards and Kelly Oubre bore the brunt of the duty. Edwards played a career-high 44 minutes, with 12 points and seven rebounds, plus the duty of chasing around the Celtics’ All-Star corps of wings in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.