Because so much of life around the Sixers pertains to injuries, 5 p.m. before every game is an event in itself. That is when the Sixers unveil their initial injury reports for games – and typically when it becomes clear which of the Sixers' key rotation players will be sidelined.

But at 5 p.m. on Sunday, the Sixers only listed one player – rookie second-round pick Johni Broome – as out. The rest of the group, perhaps unbelievably, is in. Arguably four of the team's five best players have returned from lengthy absences over the last two games. Those comebacks netted the Sixers a demolition of the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday and a thrilling road win over the red-hot Charlotte Hornets on Saturday.

With eight games left on their regular-season schedule, the Sixers have an opportunity to coalesce as they pursue one of the final two surefire playoff spots up for grabs in a packed Eastern Conference. Just a week after things looked ominous, the Sixers have every chance to end the season on a high note and earn their way into a playoff series.

As is the case every Monday morning, it is time to kick off the week with 5 Sixers thoughts:

Paul George keeps his word

With his 25-game suspension officially complete, Paul George met with reporters on Tuesday and, after apologizing to his family, teammates and fans for his actions that caused an absence of nearly eight weeks, claimed he was ready to go. George had nothing to do but work on his body during his time off; he did not need to ramp up, he said. He was ready to play more aggressively as a scorer.

Given how underwhelming George's time in Philadelphia has been so far, the following quote from the nine-time All-Star, suggesting he was ready to hit another gear as an offensive player, incited some eye-rolling:

"That’s kind of how I view it, just to be aggressive again, get back to – again, like I said earlier, I've been feeling great preparing and working out and staying in shape. I've been feeling great, feeling explosive again, feeling strong again. And so I feel like I'm back on that level of being able to perform and be the focal guy and be the scorer. So that's my mindset going into tomorrow, is to get back to being aggressive. Obviously, there will be some rust, with missing 25 games, especially in this part of the season where guys are playing playoff basketball, so to speak. So there will be a little rust but I'm just looking forward to just being full-fledged, thrown out there, being in the mix, and just being aggressive. Whatever happens, happens. But I'm looking to go out there and do what I do and do what I've done over my career."

So far, so good. George has followed through on his word in every way through two games. He was right about the rust, at least offensively; George started his return game 1-for-9 from the field but then went 10-for-13 for the rest of the way, including a ridiculous shot-making heater:

He put on a two-way clinic and made the three most important plays of the game a few nights later, arguably the best player on the floor in the Sixers' biggest win of the season so far:

George has scored 54 points in two games since returning from his suspension. It is his second-highest scoring total across any two-game sample since he joined the Sixers. With Joel Embiid joining George in returning during Wednesday's demolition of the Chicago Bulls, plus Tyrese Maxey and Kelly Oubre Jr. getting back for Saturday's thrilling road win against the Charlotte Hornets, George will not need to handle as significant of an offensive workload as he thought. But if he plays this way, the Sixers should keep feeding him.

There is no question that, given the disappointing nature of his time in Philadelphia so far, his salary and his suspension, George has a lot more to do to prove himself than submit two strong performances. But he was truly brilliant, a supercharged two-way wing role player who proved capable of morphing into an on-ball star for minutes at a time.

With Embiid and Maxey around, the Sixers do not need the highest-usage version of George. They need a player locked into his role as a defensive stabilizer, ready to fire away catch-and-shoot threes and capable of getting hot as an off-the-dribble scorer every now and then. George has passed the earliest tests with flying colors, a critical component of the Sixers' outlook suddenly looking a whole lot rosier.

MORE: How the Sixers pulled off their biggest win of the season... so far

Dominick Barlow does a deep dive

George, Oubre and Dominick Barlow have all been full-time starting forwards this season because the Sixers have almost never had all three of them healthy. And while there is no question that Oubre's defensive versatility combined with Barlow's poor three-point shooting makes the veteran swingman a more reliable piece than the young big, head coach Nick Nurse is starting Barlow and bringing Oubre off the bench for now.

The thinking is simple: Barlow is the most significant beneficiary of Embiid's gravity, and in an ideal world all of his minutes should come alongside the former NBA MVP. The easiest way to ensure that happens is to start Barlow. Oubre will play many more minutes and will be the one closing games most times – when he does not, Quentin Grimes is also probably more likely to close than Barlow – but Barlow should have his playing time next to Embiid maximized. Nurse has acknowledged as much multiple times in recent days.

After Embiid's return on Wednesday, Barlow spoke with PhillyVoice about what he looks for when sharing the floor with Embiid, how he tries to make Embiid's life easier, his cutting chops and more. Take a listen to that conversation with a lengthy batch of clips illustrating the strong rapport Embiid and Barlow have created. Barlow goes into tremendous detail:

Markelle Fultz is back in the NBA

For the second time this month, Markelle Fultz is in the news. First, he returned to professional basketball with Raptors 905 of the NBA G League. And last week, the Sixers' No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft signed a 10-day contract with the Toronto Raptors.

Fultz has dressed in four games for the Raptors and played in all of them, logging a combined 34 minutes. He has scored four points on 2-for-10 shooting from the field and has not attempted a three-pointer or a free throw. Fultz is auditioning for Toronto's 15th and final standard roster spot; it is hard to imagine he has built himself a compelling case so far but the options this late in the season are obviously limited.

Fultz now has nine years of service under his belt, and he is one year away from securing a pension. That in itself would be quite an accomplishment given his early-career adversity.

MORE: Why Zhaire Smith is 'glad' about his 'very scary' time in Philadelphia

Time to pull Cam Payne from the rotation?

The Sixers brought Cam Payne back into the fold largely for his table-setting skills; Nurse has referred to him as a "creator of offense," whether it is for himself or his teammates. His organizational abilities are noteworthy on offense and Nurse has a lot of trust in him. He thinks Payne can be a valuable eater of innings who helps keep Maxey fresh.

Through 20 appearances this season, Payne's statistical profile is awfully interesting. Most notably, his standout trait is not his shot creation, but his three-point volume. Payne has taken 4.7 three-point attempts per game despite only averaging 17.6 minutes, good for far and away a career-high of 9.6 long-range tries per 36 minutes and 12.9 attempts per 100 possessions.

"Just kind of what's [been] needed out there. But also we have tried to design it for things that we think might be open for him, put in a couple different sets where he can kind of come off [a screen] and get it going," Nurse said. "I think we need some of that productivity from him. I've been more happy – I like the volume of threes, you know that. We need it. In general, I think our team needs it. That's why I'm always encouraging it for multiple guys. But I also am probably more pleased with his running of the team and his ability to just give us some – five, six, eight minutes, whatever it is, of relief, running the team and handling the ball. Maybe relief's the wrong word, but just to buy time a little bit for some of those other guys not to be under the constant pressure of doing that."

In Saturday's win in Charlotte – the closest thing to a playoff game the Sixers have played in since the organization's last playoff appearance – Payne played two minutes in the first half and did not play in the second half. Maxey played nearly the entire second half, in part because George, Embiid, VJ Edgecombe and even Quentin Grimes all provide doses of ball-handling that now make Payne's skillset less of an urgent need.

During Maxey's brief second-half rest on Saturday, it was Edgecombe running point. And while Payne has been entrenched as a rotation player ever since putting pen to paper on his rest-of-season veteran's minimum contract, perhaps the Sixers are better off using their 20-year-old rookie as a backup point guard in the postseason in addition to his starting duties. Maxey will certainly play an enormous number of minutes; the Sixers will not be without him very often.

In an environment where weak links are exploited defensively, the Sixers might be better off asking Edgecombe, Grimes and George to tag-team with a bit more ball-handling. They could get someone like Justin Edwards, a defensive-oriented player with some versatility, on the floor. Payne can still have an impact on a playoff game as a situational, change-of-pace sort of player. He has done it before.

Rockets first-round pick watch

When the Sixers traded Jared McCain to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for the Houston Rockets' 2026 first-round pick and additional second-rounders, all eyes turned to one of the Western Conference's truly confounding teams. And at that time, it was clear the extent of the upside of that first-rounder was the No. 21 overall slot.

The last handful of weeks have been a struggle for the Rockets. And entering Monday's slate of NBA games, look at where their pick slots in:

Over the final eight games of the season, Sixers fans should not just be rooting for Rockets losses, but also for the Minnesota Timberwolves, Cleveland Cavaliers and Denver Nuggets to win. The Sixers have a chance to help themselves out; their penultimate road game of the season is in Houston on April 9. 

Initially, the realistic range for this pick could be somewhere from No. 21 to No. 26, but now it seems unlikely that it falls below No. 24 overall.

MORE: McCain couldn't remember who he played for. Then... 'I wanted to beat the Sixers'