Kevin Durant Discusses Difficulty of Facing the 'Unstoppable' Embiid

When Joel Embiid takes the floor on Thursday night, he'll face Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets for the fourth and final time during the regular season.

The last time Embiid and Durant battled it out was back in late December when the Sixers picked up an eight-point victory on the road.

Durant had himself a solid outing then. In 37 minutes, he scored 33 points off of 24 shots. Meanwhile, Sixers center Joel Embiid collected a game-high of 34 points off of 23 shots in 32 minutes.

Towards the end of the matchup, Durant and Embiid exchanged words as the game got a little chippy. But there were no hard feelings involved. Following the matchup, both Embiid and Durant confirmed that the exchange was nothing more than two competitors talking trash at the end of a rivalry game.

And since then, the two superstars have traded public compliments as they respect each other's game. With Thursday's regular-season series finale between the Nets and the Sixers approaching, Durant once again had high praise for Philly's big man.

KD Talks Embiid's Game

"To see his game grow, you can appreciate that as a fan. And when you play against it, he's going to make you step up to another level too," Durant said on The Boardroom. 

"It's a fun dynamic, but it's a b**** to play against because he's tough. He's tough to deal with. He's really unstoppable. He said something where he was like, 'I can transform from like Kobe to Hakeem, to Shaq, to a couple of other players.' And I was like, 'Yo, you're telling the truth.' I feel like he can play on all spots from the floor. He's effective from everywhere, and he's a big body." 

From the start of his NBA career, Joel Embiid made it clear he wanted to be respected on all areas of the floor as he prides himself on being a versatile competitor. Garnering praise from another established versatile superstar such as KD is just further proof that Embiid has certainly become one of the NBA's best as he's on a quest for the league's Most Valuable Player award for the second season in a row.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.