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Tim BontempsESPN
Joel Embiid, star of the Philadelphia 76ers, said he believes Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James should have been assessed for a flagrant second-level foul and was sent off for a 107-106 Philadelphia victory over the reigning champions. Wednesday evening.
“Well, first of all, I mean you look at him, it’s a very dangerous piece,” Embiid said of James’ foul, which came at 5:44 in the third quarter. “I guarantee you that if it had been me, I would probably have been kicked out of the game, which happened in the past, when I received blatant mistakes really in vain.”
While Embiid was annoyed that James was only given one blatant one – allowing him to stay in the game – he was just as upset that, 68 seconds later, he was called for a blatant one himself. for an elbow to Anthony Davis that Embiid did not think he deserved this punishment.
“When you compare it to the one I got, which I thought I didn’t really hit, I didn’t bend,” said Embiid, who had 28 points, six rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots in 38 minutes. “Maybe I touched him. But I don’t think it’s worth it if you compare the two.
“They’re difficult pieces and I just thought, you know, it should have been a blatant 2.”
For his part, Sixers coach Doc Rivers, a product from another era of the sport who presented only a little more physical play than today’s game, said he did not think any of the games should have been called at all. for a blatant.
His only concern at this point was that Embiid, who had fallen a few feet on his back and writhed to the ground in pain, was well after he fell. And while Embiid didn’t move as well after the game, he managed to stay in the game and help the Sixers win.
“First of all, LeBron is not a dirty player,” Rivers said. “It was just a physical piece and they had to call it blatant, I think.
“You know, all the blatants tonight … you can get a little blatant these days. But the fall was hard and there was some concern there. The fact that Joel went on, clearly, he wasn’t the same after that, in terms of his movement. And I knew that and I used him a lot in pick and roll because of that. “
Embiid, who recently attended the injury report with a sore back that kept him away from a game or two, said he would not know how he would react until after he woke up in the morning, but that he felt limits during the game.
He said part of Philadelphia’s stretch on the stretch, which saw the Lakers score 13 straight points to erase the Sixers’ lead by 12 points three minutes from the end and took 106-105 with 11.2 seconds left, was partly due to limiting his back movement.
“It’s me,” Embiid said of the end-of-game slide in Philadelphia. “I missed a few photos. I just didn’t have legs. Not because I was tired, which I wasn’t, but my back didn’t allow me to dominate the dominance I made in the quarterfinals. I missed a few shots , I made a few mistakes in defense, they made a few three and so they went up 1. “
But just as the ongoing questions about the Sixers and their inability to close the stretch seemed to return again to haunt Philadelphia again, the Sixers were saved by an extraordinary shot from Tobias Harris, who confidently took a pass, dribbled at the elbow against Lakers guard Alex Caruso and stood up to bury what turned out to be the winning jumper of the game, remaining 3.0 seconds.
“I’m a person that I see in those places, so when the opportunity came … this is a blow, I work from time to time, but in those moments being confident enough to leave it and be OK with the result .
– Tonight, it went well.
It was a shot that also allowed the Sixers to laugh at those weaknesses at the end of the game, a stretch that almost ruined what had been an incredibly impressive performance by the hosts in the first 45 minutes against the defending champions. In the NBA, one of Harris said his team saw it as a measuring stick given to the opponent they were facing.
“I’d say a little bit of both,” said Harris, who finished with 22 points when asked if he would focus more on being happy, hitting the game winner or being frustrated with the careless game of Late Philadelphia. “I would say there is always growth in everything. So tonight’s victory is a great victory for us against a great team, but at the same time we know we could be better, especially in the fourth quarter.”