Joel Embiid Still Processing Nic Claxton Dust Up After Game 3
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The Philadelphia 76ers nearly lost both members of the Joel Embiid and James Harden star duo on Thursday night in the Game 3 matchup against the Brooklyn Nets.
James Harden’s night ended before the start of the fourth quarter after he was hit with a flagrant two foul call after committing an offensive foul against Nets reserve, Royce O’Neal.
As Harden was accused of hitting O’Neal in the groin when driving against him, the star guard was tossed before he reached 30 minutes of playing time.
Harden disagreed with the call after the game, calling it “unacceptable,” as he believes there was no common foul on the play, let alone a flagrant that resulted in an ejection.
For those who side with The Beard, they might believe that Harden’s ejection was a result of a make-up call from earlier in the game, which saved Embiid from getting the boot early on.
Just a few minutes into Game 3, Embiid had a bit of a dust-up with Brooklyn center Nic Claxton. After Claxton went up for a dunk, he stepped over Embiid in a taunting manner while the big man was on the ground after falling.
As Claxton stepped over Embiid, the Sixers’ star kicked his leg up. Many believed that Embiid’s shift would end early. A flagrant one call saved his shift.
“I never looked up,” said Sixers head coach Doc Rivers. “I swear to God I didn’t want to look up. To this point, I have yet to see it. The game was not going well. I’m not superstitious, but I swear I never looked up. I haven’t seen it yet because I thought with the way this thing is going, anything can happen.”
Rivers claims he never saw the play. Embiid attempted to convince everybody he didn’t remember it.
“I don’t know, I don’t remember,” said Embiid when asked about it. “Like I said, we’re up 3-0. We move on. It takes me a lot to process a game after that type of fight. I gotta watch the tape, see what we can do better, and what I can do better. I’m just happy we got the win.”
Embiid elaborated further later on, claiming he could tell that the Nets were attempting to “get a rise” out of the six-time All-Star. Their plan almost worked to perfection rather quickly.
“After the first one, I just understood that I’m too valuable to get into this type of stuff,” Embiid finished. “That was the second time, you know, hitting me in the back, and that’s not reviewed. My back, my knee, hitting me every single time, which is fine. It’s working for them. I just got to keep going. You could see what the gameplan was. To make me frustrated so I can get ejected. I’m too mature to put myself in a position where I’m going to get ejected. I just went about my business, and we got the win.”
Embiid dodged a bullet and stuck around in the game to play 38 minutes. He finished the night with a double-double, scoring 14 points and coming down with ten rebounds. While Embiid was close to ejection and one mistake away from fouling out, he finished the game as the Sixers defeated Brooklyn 102-97 to take a 3-0 series lead.
