Joel Embiid, the star of the Philadelphia 76ers, said he believes Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James should have been charged with a flagrant second-level foul and eliminated from the Sixers’ 107-106 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.
“Well, first of all, I mean, look at it, 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 was flagrantly fouled for nothing.”
While Embiid was upset that James was only given a flagrant one, allowing him to stay in the game, he was equally upset that, 68 seconds later, he was called for a flagrant foul for an elbow to Anthony Davis that Embiid He didn’t think he deserved that punishment.
“When you compare him to the one I got, which I thought I didn’t really hit, I didn’t push him,” said Embiid, who had 28 points, six rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots in 38 minutes. . “I could have touched him. But I don’t think it would have been worth it if you compared the two.
“They’re difficult pieces and I thought, you know, it should have been a blatant 2.”
For his part, Coach Sixers, Doc Rivers, a product of another era of sport, which featured a little more physical play than today, he said he did not think any of the games should have been considered flagrant.
His only concern at the time was that Embiid, who had fallen a few feet on his back and was writhing on the ground in pain, was well after he fell. And, although Embiid didn’t move so 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 flagrant, I think.
“You know, all the blunders tonight … you can get easy these days. But the fall was hard and there was some concern there. The fact that Joel went on was clearly not the same after that, in as far as his movement is concerned, and I knew a little about it and used it a lot in pick and roll because of that.
Embiid, who recently participated in the back pain injury report that kept him out of a game or two, said he would not know how to respond until after he woke up in the morning, but that he felt it at limited during the game.
He said part of the collapse of the Philadelphia stretch, which saw the Lakers score 13 points in a row to erase the Sixers’ 12-point lead in three minutes to finish and take 106-105 with 11.2 seconds left. part to his limited back. your movement.
“It’s up to me,” Embiid said of the late collapse of the Philadelphia game. “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’ve done in the last quarters. I missed a few shots. , I made a few mistakes on defense, they made a few 3s and so it was 1. “
But just as it seemed that ongoing questions about the Sixers and their inability to close the stretch would return to haunt Philadelphia again, the Sixers were saved by an extraordinary shot by Tobias Harris, who confidently took a pass. dribbled. he elbowed Lakers goalie Alex Caruso and stood up to bury what turned out to be the 3.0-second winning shot.
“I’m a person who sees me in those places, so when the opportunity came … this is an opportunity I always work on, but in those moments I have enough confidence to let her go and be okay with the result. .
“She did well tonight.”
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 NBA champions in defense, one that Harris said the team saw. as a criterion, given 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 to score the winning goal or being frustrated by Philadelphia’s late careless play. . “I would say there’s always growth in everything. So tonight’s win is a big win for us against a great team, but at the same time we know we could be better, especially in the fourth quarter.”