Montrezl Harrell Sounds Off on Joel Embiid After Loss to Sixers

Things got heated during Sunday night's matchup between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Washington Wizards. As the Sixers looked to expand on their lead in the second half, the Wizards were looking for ways to get back into the game.

Washington's veteran big man Montrezl Harrell brought the energy to do so. Unfortunately for the Wizards, Harrell's high energy backfired. In the third quarter, Sixers center Joel Embiid backed Harrell down in the paint.

When the Wizards' big man lost his footing, he attempted to quickly recover by getting up and fouling Embiid to send the Sixers center to the line instead of getting the easy basket. In the process, Embiid and Harrell got tangled up, which caused things to get chippy between the two bigs.

Both Embiid and Harrell were issued technical fouls.

"He flopped, and he got me pretty hard," said Embiid after the game. "I don't think he made a play on the ball. He got me pretty hard, and we got tangled. That was really it. He was holding me and tried to hold me."

On the next offensive possession for the Wizards, Harrell threw down a dunk and kept jawing at Embiid. Then when the Sixers got back on offense, Embiid snagged an offensive rebound off of a shot miss and drew an And-1 by getting fouled by Harrell. At that point, Washington's big man grew frustrated and offered Embiid a little shove after the play. That led to another technical for Harrell, resulting in an ejection.

Harrell's Statement

Embiid laughed it off following the second incident. Following the Sixers' win over the Wizards, Embiid explained he was smarter during the second altercation.

"I knew in that situation I'm too valuable to my team to put myself in that situation and get a second technical foul," Embiid explained. "So, he just happened to react after giving up an And-1, and that got him out of there."

While Embiid shrugged off the situation, Harrell remained frustrated after the game. When asked about the incident, the Wizards' center sounded off.

"He got an and-one, he wanted to yell in my face and stuff like that," Harrell said. "I pushed him off. He was 'Oh, oh, I got pushed.' Stand on your toughness bro. If you are so tough, stand on that, my dude. Don't start doing the nitpicking and the pointing and wanting to do that talking when the ref walks by. Stand on that, my guy, because as you see, I am."

The Wizards never found a way to climb back into Sunday's game when Harrell was on the floor, and nothing changed when he left. In the end, Embiid got the last laugh as he scored 36 points in Philly's dominant win over the Wizards.

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