Embiid’s behavior in Game Three win over Knicks was disgraceful

Joel Embiid delivered a standout performance last night that propelled the Philadelphia 76ers to a 125-114 victory over the New York Knicks. There’s no denying that he was impressive. Embiid put up 50 points, his most ever in a playoff game, and added eight rebounds while shooting 13-of-19 from the floor, 5-of-7 from deep, and 19-of-21 from the foul line. The victory narrowed Philly’s series deficit to 2-1.

Most remarkable, however, was that he collected only three fouls in his 41 minutes of play. That astounds, frankly, because Embiid was in a fightin’ mood and involved in incidents that could have led to his ejection, such as kneeing Isaiah Hartenstein in the groin and pulling down Mitchell Robinson for a flagrant-one foul.

Yet again in this series officiating was a major issue. After the wild finish in Game Two and the subsequent Last Two Minute Report, we expected some ‘balancing out’ to assuage Philly’s hurt feelings. Last night’s calls were often insufficient for the infractions committed, however, and they impacted the fairness of the game. The Knicks demonstrated great resilience, but Embiid’s presence and scoring, aided by a blind eye from the refs, secured the Sixers’ victory.

Here is a supercut of Joel’s finest infractions from Game Three. And this from the NBA’s reigning MVP.

Below you can watch Embiid’s side of the story. Once more, the seven-foot, 300 lb Embiid portrays himself as a victim of bad officiating and defends his actions as self-protective, citing past injuries. (Thanks to Ball is Life for the clip.)

It’s all a smokescreen. Joel’s behavior is indefensible and the sort of shenanigans that can cause serious harm. Careers could be ended. Embiid’s actions re-aggravated Mitchell Robinson’s sore ankle and his future game availability is uncertain. If Robinson misses the next game, the Sixers will certainly have better odds to even the series.

After the game, Donte DiVincenzo called Embiid’s takedown of Mitch “dirty.” Josh Hart added, “I’m all for tough fouls, tough playoff fouls, but that’s something that can put a guy out for a significant amount of time.” Yet, here is the comment from Crew Chief Zach Zarba in the postgame Pool Report:

QUESTION: What determined the Joel Embiid Flagrant Foul 1 versus a Flagrant Foul 2?

ZARBA: In that situation, the crew gets together, we go and review the foul. In this instance, the crew was unanimous along with the replay center official in Secaucus that this foul was unnecessary but did not rise to the level of a flagrant 2. The unnecessary contact rose to the level of a flagrant 1 but we were unanimous that this did not rise to the level of excessive contact, unnecessary and excessive, which would have been a flagrant 2 ejection. That’s why we kept it a flagrant 1.

One thing is certain: a testy series is about to get a whole lot testier on Sunday at 1pm when these two square off for Game Four at Wells Fargo Center.

Go Knicks! And a parting clip, courtesy of LegendZ.